The Wisconsin Badgers are very, very good at football.
Paul Chryst's team does have two losses during the 2016 season, but those defeats came in close contests against Michigan (on the road) and Ohio State (in overtime) and, in general, Wisconsin has been fantastic this season. The Badgers reinforced that belief on Saturday in taking care of business against Nebraska and, because of previous victories over LSU and Iowa (on the road), Wisconsin has a legitimate claim as a top ten team in the country.
While that does not necessarily buoy Wisconsin into the top two in this week's Big Ten rankings, the Badgers are clearly the class of the Big Ten West in 2016. Michigan and Ohio State are still a cut above the rest, but despite the efforts of teams like Nebraska and Iowa, the Badgers hold the crown. Elsewhere, Michigan picked up a nice win over Michigan State this week and Ohio State survived another scare against Northwestern. In addition, Penn State further cemented its status as a hard-charging program with a thrashing of Purdue and, well, Michigan State still isn't very good.
At any rate, here are this week's rankings, beginning with the Maize and Blue at the top.
Big Ten Power Rankings: Week 9 (last week's rank in parentheses)
- Michigan (?")
- Ohio State (?")
- Wisconsin (?")
- Penn State (?' 1)
- Nebraska (?" 1)
- Iowa (?")
- Northwestern (?")
- Minnesota (?")
- Indiana (?' 1)
- Maryland (?" 1)
- Michigan State (?' 1)
- Purdue (?" 1)
- Illinois (?")
- Rutgers (?")
