Big Ten Football Power Poll: Regular Season Complete

The College Football regular season is now complete, and a pair of Big Ten schools completed the gauntlet to end up with matching 12-0 records. One of those two teams will see that perfect season spoiled in the Big Ten Championship Game on Saturday night in Indianapolis, and the other will be the #1 seed when the College Football Playoff pairings are announced on Sunday. For the other 16 teams, they will either move on to the offseason and come back in the spring, or for the ten lucky ones will start counting down those 15 extra practices to get ready for whatever bowl they may find themselves in what they are announced Sunday. So here is our final regular season power poll rankings, with the caveat that #1 and #2 could flip depending on Saturdays game.

#1 Ohio State Buckeyes (Previously #1)

The Buckeyes did what they have done to opponents all year. They toyed with Michigan in the first quarter giving the Wolverines hope of a 5th consecutive win in The Game. The Wolverines led 6-3 after a quarter, and then like Ohio State has done all year, they put the pedal to the floor and ran away as the game went on, snapping that four game losing streak to Michigan with a 27-9 win in Ann Arbor and locking down the Big Ten Championship Game appearance on Saturday where they are 5.5 point favorites over the Hoosiers.

#2 Indiana Hoosiers (Previously #2)

Indiana just had to get through Purdue on Friday night to also get to 12-0 and lock down their Big Ten Championship Game spot. To no surprise, the Boilermakers did not put up a fight and Indiana rolled 56-3. The Hoosiers even with a loss to the Buckeyes on Saturday will have a first round bye in the College Football Playoff and will try and prove that they are in fact not a fluke.

#3 Oregon Ducks (Previously #3)

Oregon probably had a CFP berth locked up no matter how they faired at Washington on Saturday, but a win would likely guarantee a first round home game in Autzen. The Ducks wanted to part of a close game down the stretch so they jumped out to a 13-0 lead on the Huskies and never looked back en route to a 26-14 win. IN the penultimate rankings the Ducks moved all the way up to the #5 seed and seem in great position to face the #12 seed in the opening round and then avoid Ohio State in the next round. That’s a win for sure.

#4 USC Trojans (Previously #4)

USC got close to earning a CFP bid, but just had a few too many mistakes losing to Illinois and Notre Dame along with the Ducks. The Trojans took care of business winning the Victory Bell again over UCLA with a 29-10 win to finish the regular season 9-3 and head to the Alamo Bowl likely against a decent Big-12 Team.

#5 Michigan Wolverines (Previously #5)

Michigan stays at #5 despite their loss to Ohio State. They took advantage of a fairly easy schedule to finish 9-3 despite freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood’s struggles at times. They will end the season in one of the two Big Ten Florida bowl games against a SEC opponent.

#6 Iowa Hawkeyes (Previously #7)

Iowa put the boot down on Nebraska in the second half and ran away with a 40-16 win on Black Friday to end the season with a 8-4 overall record. The Hawkeyes were just a few points away from a potential CFP run losing to Oregon and Indiana at home by a combined seven points. Instead they will either pick up the Big Ten’s second Florida Bowl spot, or could find themselves in Nashville once again.

#7 Washington Huskies (Previously #6)

Washington drops back one spot after their season ending loss to Oregon to finish the season 8-4. Had they not choked in Madison, they could have had a ton of play for last week, but instead it’s just one last loss in the regular season. Washington likely heads to somewhere in Southern California—either the LA Bowl against a top Mountain West opponent—likely the loser of the UCLA/Boise State game this Friday, or to the Holiday Bowl in San Diego against an ACC squad.

#8 Illinois Fighting Illini (Previously #8)

It was a season of missed opportunities for the Illinois Fighting Illini. They entered the season with fark hourse CFP aspirations and after getting absolutely trucked by Indiana, those thoughts got a bit lost. Losing to Ohio State was no biggie, but then falling to both Washington and Wisconsin—well there was no coming back from that. The Illini will still get a good bowl game—likely either Nashville bound with an outside chance of Florida, but since they were in Florida a season ago and Iowa was in Nashville there’s a good chance they flip locals this season.

#9 Penn State Nittany Lions (Previously #10)

Penn State comes back to win their last three games in a row and squeak into a bowl game at 6-6 on the season. They barely pulled it off though needing a lucky bounce to defeat Rutgers 40-36 in a de facto elimination game. Now we see how much pull a weakened Nittany Lions team has in the bowl pecking order. A trip to NYC seems likely, but nobody will be surprised if they somehow talk themselves into a warmer locale. The better question is will they ever hire a coach after crashing and burning on all their top choices so far.

#10 Minnesota Golden Gophers (Previously #11)

Minnesota needed a win like they got on Saturday to retail the Axe and send Wisconsin home on a sour note. The Gophers did what Washington and Illinois could not do and that was shut down the Badgers. Yeah, the weather helped too, but Minnesota found a way to get it done and 7-5 and keeping the axe is infinitely better than 6-6 and not. Now we see if the Gophers get screwed in bowl roulette again. A trip to Las Vegas would be great, but it’s unfortunately much more likely they head back to a baseball stadium—hopefully the one in Arizona and not the one in NYC though.

#11 Northwestern Wildcats (Previously #9)

Yes, Northwestern defeated the Gophers and suddenly is behind them, but Minnesota took advantage of the conditions and used them to beat Wisconsin while the Wildcats couldn’t and fell to Illinois. It’s still a 6-6 season for Northwestern and a bowl game—thought that likely means just a quick hop on I-94 east to Detroit for the 45 fans who might make the trip from Chicagoland.

#12 Nebraska Cornhuskers (Previously #12)

Nebraska had their season derailed by a bad loss at Minnesota—and then the loss of their starting QB. Their backup was not good, and Iowa finished them off with a blowout in Lincoln on Blac Friday. Despite all that, look for Nebraska to get a better bowl locate than the Gophers depite their similar records and MN’s head to head win, and actually presence of a starting quarterback. Hopefully people are wrong, but there might be a lot of drunk Nebraskans in Vegas for the holidays.

#13 Rutgers Scarlet Knights (Previously #14)

The bowls stop here and the rest of these teams have nothing but the off-season to looks forwards to. Rutgers had a chance to go bowling but despite a late fourth quarter lead, they fumbled the game away and PSU returned it for the win and the chance to keep their season alive. Athan went out on a high note with 336 yards passing and three TDs and no interceptions, but the Robb Smith defense failed yet again and Rutgers will stay home.

#14 Wisconsin Badgers (Previously #13)

Wisconsin ends their season trophyless after the Gophers kept the Axe in Minneapolis. The Badgers did pick up a couple of surprising wins in November to get to 4-8 to the season, but it was in general as bad as was expected. We shall see with an easier schedule next season if Luke Fickel can keep his job or not.

#15 UCLA Bruins (Previously #13)

UCLA teased everyone in October, but came crashing back to life with five straight losses to end the season including a 29-10 loss to USC last Saturday. The Bruins may have a new coach in James Madison’s Bob Chesney and may have sniped him before Penn State looped back to him after missing out on their top guys. Can he have the same effect on a team as the last JMU coach to enter the Big Ten?

#16 Michigan State Spartans (Previously #16)

Michigan State finally picked up a Big Ten win 38-28 over Maryland to end the season….and then promptly fired everyone. Then they hired Pat Fitzgerald. Which could either be great, or blow up spectacularly. We shall see.

#17 Purdue Boilermakers (Previously #17)

Why is Purdue #17 and not #18? Does it really matter at this point? Probably not.

#18 Maryland Terrapins (Previously #18)

Oh yeah—that’s why when you start the season 4-0 and then promptly lose your next eight in a row to finish 4-8. At least Purdue doesn’t mess with their fanbase’s heads like the Terps do.