Big Ten Power Poll - Week 5

Paul is out this week, so we're a little behind on getting our Power Poll published. You'll notice that I'm not the same level of wizard with spreadsheets that Paul is - in fact, I'm no where near it, hence the late posting.

Comments on Week Five power Poll:

Andy: Ok, let's get this party started at the top. Sparty stays #1, but I moved the Huskers up to #2 for three reasons:
Wisconsin's close loss to LSU is falling farther & farther in the rear view and they look more blah each week. At least until Melvin Gordon jet sweeps us back to the Stone Age. Goddammit.
I'm a total homer sometimes.
Maybe it's only the B1G but I love #1 vs. #2 games. Conference poll bowl, baby!

I still give Maryland the edge over the best of the middle pack. Penn St. & Indiana freefall after bad losses with the Nittanies being counted in the "inexcusable" category. The 6-8 spots can be shuffled as you like.

Northwestern creeps up a little for a laying a beatdown on America's favorite creepy university. Illinois hardens its claim on last, but it was damn tough not to put the Michigan down there. You'll have to work hard to find a more unmitigated mess anywhere in college football. When 9,000 men (and womyn) of Michigan come to protest your horrible job performance, you know you've found a special level somewhere between rock bottom and rock bottom's septic tank. I'm starting to wonder if it wasn't Hoke and Brandon who took a shot to the head. They'll have to find those two in bed together with a freshman and his sheep for this to get any worse.

Salt Creek and Stadium: HULLO NORTHWESTERN. I figured for my inaugural poll of the season, I needed to roll out my ol' standby #0. Get the people talkin'. They did win a game and we have to celebrate competency when it happens. (We also punish incompetency, so expect Michigan to remain at #14 until Hoke is unemployed. That's right, Ann Arbor. YOU ARE WORSE THAN PURDUE.)

Oh, and I put Maryland up at #1 first, but then I decided, well, if Michigan and Wisconsin aren't going to kick them out of the AAU, they don't deserve to be #1. Also, I dropped Wisconsin like a hot potato fresh out of the fire because their run game is streaky and they're trying the defensive-back-at-QB routine, without much success in the vertical passing game.

The rest of the rankings are basically matching winners and losers, hopefully favoring winners towards the top.

Ranchbabe: Welcome back Salt!
I am really excited for this weekend. Randy Gregory vs Connor Cook. Ameer Abdullah vs the all-galaxy defense. The B1G doesn't get any better than this.
My top four are pretty similar to everyone else. There seems to be a break point between these teams and the rest of the conference (although I am starting to take the Turtles more seriously). Wisconsin is teetering on the edge since their passing game is not much cause for concern. However, their run game is scary enough that I hope Bo finds a few spare linebackers hidden somewhere in the bowels of One Memorial before we meet up with Bucky in November. Minny and Iowegia are basically a coin flip. Strong defense. Good run game. Someone ripped out the playbook section labelled "forward pass" and neither offensive coordinator noticed.
As for 8-12. Blech. No comment.

The bottom of the pile was a tough choice for me. Michigan is a tire fire on and off the field. Purdue is mostly one only on the field. Why did I still put Purdue on the bottom? Because I ultimately think Michigan will clean house and throw piles of money at the problem and return to competence. Purdue will continue to trudge along until Delaney trades them for North Dakota State.