I read Stewart Mandel’s column about the Big 10 race so far. It certainly has been a surprise. Everyone was picking Ohio St, Michigan, Iowa and Purdue to contend for the title if not multiple BCS bowls. Now both Iowa and Michigan have 2 loses and are out of the BCS race unless someone else implodes. Instead, Michigan St, Wisconsin, Penn St and Minnesota are all undefeated.
I think that Minnesota and Penn St are pretenders. Minnesota seems like a one dimensional team, all Laurence Maroney. All a team has to do is stop him and Minnesota doesn’t the talent at the rest of the positions to compensate. The Big 10 has quite a few defenses that can stop the run, so I can’t see them being the in the hunt.
Penn St has won all their games, but has looked weak in most of them. They squeaked by South Florida and Northwestern. Maybe South Florida is a little more impressive now that they beat Louisvile. Penn St has plenty of talent, but Paterno can’t put it together for a win anymore.
Michigan St has looked very impressive with wins against Notre Dame in South Bend and racking up over 40 points per game in all 4 of their wins. I can’t speak to their D, so who knows? They play at Ohio St in 2 weeks and that may the game that determines the Big 10 winner.
I don’t think Wisconsin has proved themselves pretender or contender yet. They struggled against Bowling Green and North Carolina, but beat Temple 65-0. Their win against Michigan says more about Michigan’s weakness than Wisconsin’s strengths. The one thing that works in Wisconsin’s favor is their schedule. They play Iowa and Purdue at home and don’t play Ohio St at all. Their only difficult away game is Minnesota. Wisconsin could end up at the top of the standings thanks to a weak schedule.
I’ll wait another week or so to make any predictions about the final standings and bowl lineup.
