Breaking B1G: Week 7 bowl projections

Let's face it, the Big Ten is really not good. Week 6 was not kind to a lot of teams. Two of the best teams in the league this year are ineligible for post-season play, so that really makes figuring out who is going where sort of difficult. Here's my take.

B1G Rank Bowl This Week Previous Week
1st
Michigan Nebraska
2nd
Wisconsin Michigan
3rd
Nebraska Purdue
4th
Purdue Wisconsin
5th
Northwestern Northwestern
6th
Michigan State Michigan State
7th
Iowa Iowa
8th
Minnesota Minnesota

• Michigan gets my top spot this week. Despite two non-conf losses to top-10 teams, Michigan came out and pummeled Purdue to make a strong case for a conference title game bid. If Michigan's defense can continue to improve and they can make a non-Denard running game somehow materialize, there might not be a team in the league that can stop them.

• Michigan State looked like a team with a serious hangover in week 6. They were flat outplayed by Indiana in every facet of the game for 3 quarters, which ended when sheer talent took over. But for a while, it looked like Michigan State was about to go down against the worst team in the Big Ten.

• Northwestern played a great one against Penn State, but couldn't finish. Penn State is playing much better than this blogger thought they would at this point in the season after the start they had. It's a shame those players who stayed cannot play for a shot at a title. But a division crown is well within reach. They seem to unphased by all of the off-season distractions. My hats off to Bill O'Brien.

• I have to think Nebraska is better than what they showed against Ohio State. But a loss like that could seriously impact how the rest of the season goes for Corn Huskers. Their trip to Evanston in two weeks after a bye week will tell us what we need to know.

• Wisconsin is my default winner of the Leaders division because, well, I'm not picking Purdue. Hey, they play each other this week West Lafayette! Expect 10,000 less fans than what they drew for the Michigan game.
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