The start of conference play is behind us and there’s some shuffling in the index. Penn State after its impressive win over Illinois is now nipping at Ohio State’s heels – just a fraction of an index point away. Wisconsin’s loss dropped them but there’s still a lot of confidence in that team, and despite Michigan’s effort it looks like the pollsters a still a tad skeptical (I am). They jumped up in the ranking but a mere 4.5 index points. Northwestern meanwhile has moved into that third tier of teams and heading up. The Spartans? Slowly and steadily creeping up. Great stuff, here’s the latest index:
The best part of the Index, comments from those polled:
Gilliam, the bitter Badger: I hate football. John Belushi, first SNL skit: “We are all out of Badgers…Let’s boil the Wolverines.”
Biggie, the mildly pleased Spartan “Great weekend…..UM turned what could have been a second consecutive ugly loss into a great win (thanks in large part to a very good defense)….they live to play another day. UW now has a must win at home next week vs. Ohio State.”
“Terrelle Pryor looked good for OSU. This cat is going to wreak havoc on the Big 10. PSU is the class of the league at this point. Northwestern is 5-0….seems like a bloated record at this point….time will tell. Michigan St. won a crazy game at Indiana that they would have given away two years ago. Hard to judge how good this team is.”
Schlim, the Buckeye who’s looking to roll the Big Ten “Michigan’s 2nd half rally has to top the list this week, time will tell if this is their “turning point” for the year.”
“Is it just me or does it seem like you can’t go more than 10 plays without some type of review, I personally think they should follow the NFL rules and only review plays that are challenged by coaches, having the booth look at every play takes the flow away from the game and frustrates everyone involved.” [Web: You’ll get some support here; I’m a little on the fence. I’m sick of all the stoppages…maybe give the coaches three challenges and cancel the every play review.]
Lew, Ribmaster: Was impressed by “Northwestern–I’m starting to believe.”
“Maybe Purdue’s non-conference struggles are more indicative of how the season will go than their talented QB. If ‘Second Half Michigan’ shows up for the whole game against Illinois, we might be in for a pretty good ride.”
