Big Ten Football Power Rankings 2017: Wisconsin on top in Week 4?

The Northwestern Wildcats could be one of the bigger question marks in the Big Ten heading into conference play as their performance thus far has not been to telling. In their first game of the season, the Wildcats struggled throughout the game before pulling out a close win against Nevada. The following week, the team got beat down pretty badly by Duke.

Northwestern currently sits at 2-1 after demolishing Bowling Green in a nice tune up game before starting conference play. It is safe to assume there will be no more of those types of games moving forward as the Wildcats open up league play at Wisconsin, home against Penn State, and then at Maryland. A lot will be told about Pat Fitzgerald and his square in a couple of weeks and depending on how they play, the Wildcats could be bouncing around the power rankings list quite a bit.

There is not a whole lot analysis needed for the Indiana Hoosiers this week as their game against Florida International last week was canceled due to Hurricane Irma and travel implications surrounding FIU and their team.

The Hoosiers had a tough start to their season opening up with Ohio State, but responded nicely with a road victory over Virginia. A game against FIU would have been much needed for the Hoosiers after back to back games against Power Five squads, but fortunately for the Hoosiers there is an advantage of scheduling a conference opponent in week one as the team gets another week of non-conference opponents.

Indiana will welcome in winless Georgia Southern before resuming Big Ten play at Penn State.

The college football world noticed the Purdue Boilermakers in week one as they stuck with Lamar Jackson and the Louisville Cardinals all the way until the end. Purdue then got in the win column against Ohio before taking it to the Missouri Tigers on the road, despite floating around seven point underdogs leading up to the game.

There is no doubt that the Boilermakers offense is lethal, but was impressive about their win over the Tigers was the fact that they held them to just three points and 203 total yards of offense. Remember, this was a Missouri team that put 72 points in the season opener against Missouri State. If Purdue can have their defense step up throughout the Big Ten season and help their offense out a bit, do not be surprised if the Boilermakers upset a team or two along the way.