B1G Breakdown: Week 7

I thought I had it nabbed last week with my predictions, but Penn State had to go ahead and ruin the party. I actually thought that one could go either way. We didn't really know much about either team until last week. Penn State avoided going to defcon 2 on their season, while Iowa has been shelved as a middle-of-the-pack B1G team yet again.

Anyone catch that game in Lincoln? The Tweet of the night came from BigRedNetwork who went all caps lock with "OMG VICTORY FORMATION". OMG indeed.

Here's how I'm doing so far in my predicto...

Weeks 1-5: 45-7
Week 6: 4-1
Overall: 49-8  (.859)

All 5 B1G games this week are divisional games.

All games are Saturday 10/15. All times eastern. My pick in bold. (Rankings: AP/Coaches/Harris)

Legends Division Games:

#11/10/10 Michigan @ #23/19/22 Michigan State

12:00 - ESPN

Northwestern @ Iowa

7:00 - BTN

Leaders Division Games:

Indiana @ #4/4/4 Wisconsin

12:00 - ESPN2

Purdue @ #NR/25/NR Penn State

12:00 - BTN

Ohio State @ #16/15/14 Illinois

3:30 - ABC/ESPN

Bye: Minnesota, #14/14/13 Nebraska

Biggest "must-watch" games of the week (other than Michigan):
By default it's OSU and Illinois. After the Buckeyes squandered a 27-6 lead in the 3rd quarter, and lost to Nebraska 34-27, this makes any game that OSU is in for the rest of the season appointment television. Plus, Illinois could be the real deal this year. This should actually be a pretty entertaining game to watch. Word is Braxton Miller will play – as he should. I'd take an injured Miller over a healthy and confident Bauserman any day.

Although I must admit that I have a hard time picking Illinois here. I have a tough time seeing OSU lose three four B1G games in a row. But they have Wisconsin visiting next week which could turn ugly. As a Michigan fan, I'm not exactly sure how to feel about the Buckeyes right now. OSU is spiraling right now. Smart money picks Illinois straight up.

How this game gets the 3:30 time slot ahead of Michigan-Michigan State though, is beyond me.

Upset Alert!
I'm putting Penn State on upset watch*. Purdue could be one of the worst teams in the league, but they just smacked around Minnesota last week (who hasn't) at home, so they should be coming into this game pretty confident. The Nittany Lions just squeaked by Iowa, and have a tough trip to Evanston coming up in a week, so they could be looking past the Boilers.

Snoozer of the week
Wisconsin will score 100 points on Indiana – by halftime.

Bold predictions!
Again, I don't see any crazy upsets this week. I think the ranked teams in the Leaders division take care of business. The two Legends division games, however, should be much more entertaining. I like both road teams in those games.

*Not really.