Big Ten football power rankings, Week 13: The Game looms large

They struggled to do it, but Purdue kept their West division hopes alive with their victory over Northwestern. It certainly was not pretty with the offense stuck in neutral most of the day. However, the Boilermakers played a clean game with no turnovers and only two accepted penalties.

The Boilermakers will look to finish the season by winning the Old Oaken Bucket against Indiana. They will need help from Nebraska defeating Iowa in order to punch their ticket to Indianapolis.

The Iowa Hawkeyes are one win away from going back to Indianapolis for the second straight year. Who would have thought that was even possible a month ago? The Hawkeye offense is still one of the worst in FBS, but the defense is very good along with the special teams. They gave up nearly 400 yards to Minnesota but only 10 points and the offense did just enough once again to get the win.

Iowa now needs to beat Nebraska on Friday afternoon to punch their ticket to Indy. That’s the easiest path to the championship game. They also could still lose and win the West if both Purdue and Illinois also lose.

Penn State’s offense was slow to wake up, but they got a 100-yard kickoff return and two defensive scores off fumble returns. The Nittany Lions offense did put some scoring drives together on their way to a 55-10 rout of Rutgers.

This team has beaten up on all the teams they should beat and their only two losses are to top five teams. James Franklin appears to have got the Nittany Lions back to where they were at the end of the 2019 season before Covid struck. With all the young talent, this could be a fun team to watch over the next couple of seasons.

With a 10-win season and a potential New Year’s Six bowl berth on the line, Penn State concludes its regular season with a home date against Michigan State next Saturday.