Northwestern won 10 games in 2015 and it feels like a decade ago at this point.
Pat Fitzgerald and the Wildcats suffered an unfortunate but not terribly surprising loss to a solid Western Michigan team in Week 1 and, as a result, we docked the team in our Week 1 power rankings for the Big Ten. However, no one could have foreseen another loss for Northwestern this week, as the Wildcats fell flat on their face in a 9-7 defeat against Illinois State. Needless to say, that means that the team in purple has fallen just about as far as possible on this week's list.
During a fairly "status quo" week for the conference, that is the big shake-up and, without further delay, here is the full list.
Spoiler alert: Next week's Big Ten slate is much more interesting. Let's roll.
Big Ten Power Rankings: Week 2 (last week's rank in parentheses)
- Ohio State (?")
- Michigan (?")
- Wisconsin (?")
- Iowa (?")
- Michigan State (?")
- Nebraska (?")
- Penn State (?")
- Minnesota (?' 1)
- Indiana (?" 1)
- Illinois (?")
- Maryland (?' 1)
- Northwestern (?" 1)
- Purdue (?")
- Rutgers (?")