Saturday Blitz Pac 12 Power Rankings Week 7
The Michigan State Spartans remain the top team in our Big Ten Power Rankings, and who can blame us? They haven’t lost a Big Ten game since 2012! That’s enough to consistently crown them the king of the conference until they are dethroned because right now they own everybody in it. Even if they struggled with Purdue for a while, it’s worth noting that the Boilermakers are getting better. And it’s worth noting that Nebraska was a quality win.
The Spartans showed over the weekend they can win in shootouts as well. Putting up 45 points was impressive. But the linebackers still showed their inexperience against Purdue, and that group has to be more consistent. If it does, this team is good enough to compete with the best in the country, even the same Oregon team that beat it earlier in the year. If not, this team will fall down the Big Ten standings with the schedule it has coming up.
Michigan is up next, but then the Spartans have Ohio State and a trip to Maryland, two teams that like to run spread styles, do it successfully, and are loaded with skill players. That could be the kryptonite for the Spartans defense, as Oregon showed. Those two games will determine how the season plays out for Michigan State and how much they have developed since the beginning of the year.
But at least for right now, match-ups aside, these guys purely look like the best team in the Big Ten. And we are going to rank them as such once again.