Big Ten Football Power Rankings after Week 8
![]Michigan Wolverines head coach Jim Harbaugh, Donovan Edwards (7) J.J. McCarthy (9) celebrate after a touchdown against the Michigan State Spartans during first-half action at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023.](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_1080,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape%2Fcover%2Fsport%2Ffcf7b803c500b82f792600138849f3125101f68c59e995bc68296ce0db7bdb32.jpg "]Michigan Wolverines head coach Jim Harbaugh, Donovan Edwards (7) J.J. McCarthy (9) celebrate after a touchdown against the Michigan State Spartans during first-half action at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023.")
After Ohio State beat Penn State in a hideous game, here are the updated Big Ten Football Power Rankings still led by the Michigan Wolverines.
The biggest lesson from the past week of Big Ten football games is that Penn State is still a pretender. At least the Nittany Lions looked like one on Saturday.
Drew Allar is going to have better days in his career. The talent was there but he was awful on Saturday and we saw nothing that leads us to believe the Nittany Lions are on the same level as Michgan and Ohio State right now.
Can that change in a few weeks by beating Michigan? Sure. But Penn State will need to be much better than it was last Saturday against Ohio State, which is winning big games despite its own offensive warts, which is impressive in its own right.
Minnesota pulled an upset, just like we predicted, while Nebraska took a step closer to bowl eligibility. With all that in mind, here are the Big Ten football power rankings after Week 8.
14. Indiana (2-5, 0-4)
The Hoosiers still haven’t won a Big Ten football game, which makes them just one of two teams (Michigan State) that has failed to win a league game. Rutgers won by 17 in Bloomington last week and you can feel Tom Allen’s seat getting hotter by the day.
13. Michigan State (2-5, 0-4)
The Spartans, even though Michigan didn’t steal their signs, didn’t look like a Big Ten football team against the Wolverines. Jim Harbaugh might have called a run on the final play, but he took out his starters in the third quarter. The final could have been 70-0. It was that lopsided.
12. Northwestern (3-4, 1-3)
The Wildcats battled last week at Nebraska but lost a winnable game, 17-9. Northwestern intercepted passes on the first two series of the game, giving them essentially two chances near the red zone, and got just three points. David Braun has Northwestern fighting, but a bowl game would have felt much more attainable with a win last week.