Big Ten Bloggers poll, week 6.
As I said yesterday, I'll take a look at schedules of the contenders sometime early this week.
1. Purdue (19-5, 10-1). Last week: 2. I don't know how anyone could put anyone else here. Purdue leads the conference and is the only team with a road win against one of the top four.
2. Indiana (20-3, 9-1). Last week: 3. IU won a really challenging game at Illinois and handed OSU its first road loss. The Hoosiers, with MSU, PSU, and Northwestern remaining, should do no worse than 7-2 on the road in conference.
3. Wisconsin (19-4, 9-2). Last week: 1. The Badgers are undefeated against everyone but Purdue, but they are the first of the top four to lose a home game.
4. Michigan State (20-3, 8-2). Last week: 4. Michigan State can jump back in to the race this week with road games at Purdue and IU, but probably needs to win both to have a chance at the conference title.
5. Ohio State (16-8, 7-4). Last week: 5. OSU seems destined for best of the rest status, but the Buckeyes still have a few opportunities for signature wins.
6. Minnesota (15-7, 5-5). Last week: 6. Minnesota is holding on but needs quite a run to make the NCAA. 7. Iowa (11-14, 4-8). Last week: 7. Tough week for Iowa, and as PJS noted, quite a sloppy effort at the Barn.
8. Penn State (11-12, 3-8). Last week: 8. It gets ugly from here to the end.
9. Michigan (6-17, 2-9). Last week: 10. The Wolverines showed a little life with a home win against Penn State.
9. Illinois (10-14, 2-9). Last week: 9. I'm not sure where Illinois can go from here. They can go to hell as far as I'm concerned.
11. Northwestern (7-14, 0-10). Last week: 11. The worst Big Ten team in years.
5 comments:
In my mind, the Hoosiers are still first in the league...While IU hasn't played great lately, they still have just one-loss and have the schedule that lends itself to a BT title run.
We'll know a lot more in 10 days...but as of right now, IU's my #1.
I agree about the schedule. When it was disclosed that IU and Purdue would only be playing once each then next two years (don't get me started on the lack of protected rivalries, especially with this rivalry heating up again) I wished it were the other way around. I figured that this year's IU team would be good enough to win at Mackey but that next year's team, sans White and Gordon and going up against a more experience Purdue team, would need the homecourt more. Little did we know that this year's game would probably decide the Big Ten title. Crazy. It also shows how bad the bottom half of the conference is. There isn't a solid NC contender among the Big Ten's leaders, yet 15-3 might not be good enough for a share of the title.
Oh, and as for the rankings, I agree that if things go to form IU should win the conference (possibly tied with Purdue, but as the #1 seed based on head to head), but Purdue definitely has the best conference resume to date, which is twhat I mostly consider in the rankings at this point in the season.
Stupid Big Ten scheduling.
Delaney is a boob.
purdue made a statement tonight by beating ohio state. even if they slip up before IU in 7 days (which wont happen) they can still solidify their place as #1 by beating the hoosiers. the winner of that game will most likely get the big ten title
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