The spread between teams in the conference is collapsing and Michigan continues its drop after the brutal loss to Notre Dame. In the preseason poll the gap between the Buckeyes and the lowest rated Gophers was 85.2 index points, that gap heading into week 4 is now 73.5.
Steady Eddie all season? The Spartans, in four polls from the preseason to the current week, the Michigan State index has held a range of 50 to 51.1.
Here’s the current poll:
The comments from the pollsters were pretty consistent: the Big Ten sucks:
Gilliam the Badger: “The Big Ten proved this week that it ranks slightly higher than the WAC, the Sun Belt, the Missouri Valley, the Big Sky, and Big East conferences.”
Biggie the Spartan: “We did not learn a whole lot this week other than the Big Ten looks to be pretty lame from a national perspective.”
Schlimmy the disappointed Buckeye, “Wisconsin provided the Big Ten with their best win of the year so far (which isn’t saying much). Michigan and Ohio State, first Michigan simply handing Notre Dame the game in the first quarter. Second I completely expected my Buckeyes to get spanked by USC, once Beanie hurt his foot/toe a couple weeks ago I knew they were in serious trouble vs USC. I’m not saying they would have won with him at 100% but he would have made a significant difference in the game (as I’m sure I will get no argument from any Michigan fans).” [from a Michigan fan: you still would have been worked but Beanie would have made a difference.]
Shep the Domer, He was impressed by “Minnesota, they are showing they should be at least capable of playing with middle tier Big Ten.”
Lew: Was impressed with “Purdue – I think they’re for real and are playing like the want to send Joe Tiller off right. They lost to a speedy Oregon team in a game they should have won in a pretty weird week for the Big 10. If Michigan takes care of the football, they’re a coin flip with a not very good ND team.
I’ve got Ohio State, Penn State and Wisconsin in a dead heat at the top. Ohio State should still be the best team in the conference (nobody should come close to beating USC this year) but they’ve got a lot of psychological rebuilding to do after 3 straight blow-out losses in huge national games (not including vs Michigan of course).” [Of course.]
