It wasn’t much more than a month ago when the college football world had essentially written off the Big Ten. Weeks Two and Three saw its teams go a combined 11-11 in non-conference match ups, which included not a single high-profile victory. Michigan State squandered a second half lead before falling at Oregon, and Ohio State got housed in the Horseshoe by unranked Virginia Tech. At that point in time, the chances that the league would get a representative into the College Football Playoff at season’s end appeared slim indeed.
There was a slight hint of redemption in Week Four, when 12 of the 13 teams in action (Ohio State was idle) came away with victories, including Indiana’s shocking upset of Missouri. You know it’s one of those years when the Hoosiers go on the road and beat an SEC foe the same day Michigan gets thoroughly dominated in The Big House by a team only a few years removed from mid-major status. Three Big Ten-ACC challenges (if I may make a reference to the annual basketball rivalry between the conferences) took place that week as well. Iowa and Maryland travelled to Pittsburgh and Syracuse respectively with both coming out victorious, along with Nebraska taking care of business in Lincoln against Miami.
Don’t Count the Big Ten Out Just Yet
Unless you live under a proverbial rock, you’re well aware of the chaos that transpired amongst top-rated teams on Saturday. The state of Mississippi had perhaps the greatest day in its sporting history with upsets of Alabama and Texas A&M. Oklahoma got tripped up by the Horned Frogs of TCU in Fort Worth. Lastly, the two Pac-12 frontrunners, Oregon and UCLA, took major steps back with home losses to unranked teams at the time. What you may not be aware of even if you consider yourself to be a savant of the game is the fact that these developments could have major positive ramifications for the Big Ten in terms of getting itself back into the conversation.
Michigan State is currently ranked eighth in both major polls after their 27-22 win over Nebraska in Week Six. Four of the teams ahead of them are members of the big, bad SEC, including Auburn, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Alabama in that order. Other than the games that have already taken place, all four have to play each other at some point down the road. Let’s take a look at each of their remaining games against currently ranked teams in the conference.
Auburn
October 11: at Mississippi State, November 1: at Ole Miss, November 8: vs Texas A&M, November 15: at Georgia, November 29: at Alabama
Ole Miss
October 11: at Texas A&M, November 1: vs Auburn, November 29: vs Mississippi State
Mississippi State
October 11: vs Auburn, November 15: at Alabama, November 29: at Ole Miss
Alabama
October 18: vs Texas A&M, November 15: vs Mississippi State, November 29: vs Auburn
Even as a Big Ten homer, I’ll concede that we ain’t got nothing on the SEC West. Clearly, that division is the cream of the crop in college football as we speak. Having said that, somebody has to lose between Auburn and Mississippi State or Ole Miss and Texas A&M. There are plenty of possible permutations whereby which a few of these teams could wind up with two or more losses when all is set and done. This conference cannibalization could certainly favor the winner of the Big Ten Championship game in Indianapolis if that team has only one loss.
Michigan State is positioned the most favorably right now to benefit in such a scenario, but don’t sleep on Ohio State either. They’re currently ranked 15th in both polls and face the Spartans November 8th in East Lansing. If both teams remain unblemished between now and then, that game obviously takes on “Game of the Year” status in the Big Ten. Do you want to know how big that game is? The conference has already scheduled it for 8 pm which is quite telling for a league that normally announces start times no more than two weeks in advance and tends to shy away from November night games.
After the Virginia Tech loss, it looked as if the Buckeyes were down and out when it came to challenging MSU for conference supremacy. Redshirt freshman quarterback J.T. Barrett was extremely error-prone in the defeat, the offensive line’s play was shoddy at best, and the secondary made several key miscues that led to Hokie touchdowns. All three units have shown significant improvements at different points since then.
It’s completely normal for a signal caller to have “growing pains” when you’re thrown to the wolves like Barrett has been, but it’s becoming readily apparent that he’s progressed from that phase of his development into one of the best at his position in the conference. His stats over the past three games are nothing short of mind-blowing for someone a mere five games into his college career: 67 completions off 89 attempts for 909 yards with 14 touchdowns and a single interception. Through five games, his passing efficiency numbers (186.3) rank fourth in the nation.
We all know coach Urban Meyer loves himself a dual-threat quarterback, and Barrett hasn’t disappointed in this regard either. Though he hasn’t quite put up Johnny Football style numbers, his 71 carries for 276 yards and 2 touchdowns on the season prove he can produce on the ground when he needs to. Speaking of the running game, it appears that OSU has found its feature back in Ezekiel Elliot. After starting the season in a sort of running back-by-committee fashion, he’s certainly emerged as the go-to guy over the past two games, averaging 160.5 yards.
They say that it’s always darkest before dawn, and perhaps the sun might be on the cusp of peaking over the horizon for a conference that has been much maligned since the season started. If the contending teams from the SEC West can beat each other up bad enough between now and December, either the Buckeyes or Spartans are more than willing to move up if either can run the table. The big question moving forward is whether or not the committee will overlook that single blunder on each’s resumé if they finish the rest of the season unbeaten.
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