ESPN Graphic Shows How Crazy The Big Ten Championship Race Is

Following a weekend in which five of the top 10 teams from last week’s poll lost, Ohio State (9-1) came in at No. 2, followed by No. 3 MI (9-1), No. 4 Clemson (9-1), No. 5 Louisville (9-1) and No. 6 Washington (9-1).

The chaos wrought by upsets of Michigan, Clemson and Washington is hard to sort out behind No. 1 Alabama.

“I see it like this: If we win out all our games, Big Ten championship or not, you not going to put us in?” quarterback J.T. Barrett said incredulously.

No. 4 MI and No. 5 Clemson each dropped two spots and No. 7 Washington fell three after losing for the first time. The Utah Utes moved up 3 spots to number 12. “They’ve been beat up a little on the offensive line, but they’re (a) unsafe offensive football team”. And Ohio State looms to close out the year.

Colorado has its highest ranking since it was No. 12 on December 1, 2002. If that holds serve, Penn State is locked into being the most regarded opponent of a playoff team for championship week. That game marked Ohio State’s fewest total yards in a game since 2007.

Three teams sit atop the Big Ten East standings with 6-1 conference records. No 8 Texas A&M and No. 9 Auburn also fell, just for good measure. Even so, the Buckeyes couldn’t find it in their hearts to pull for MI. Rugamba started for the first time for an injured Greg Mabin.

Louisville will not make the playoff because one blowout win against the third best team in your conference does not make you one of the best four teams in the country.

Virginia Tech and North Carolina dropped out after losing to unranked Atlantic Coast Conference rivals. Although Elflein redshirted his first season with the Scarlet and Gray in 2012, he has been around since that year to face the Spartans four times.

Beating Michigan won’t erase the fact that Iowa, once the favorite to win the Big Ten West, will fall short of its expectations. After getting out of the game against Ohio State the week prior, Tommy Armstrong returned to put up 217 yards through the air and 61 more on the ground.

That was one of two times coach Mark Dantonio’s teams have at least badly damaged if not ended Ohio State’s national championship hopes in the past three seasons. If Ohio State beats Michigan at home (more than plausible) and Penn State wins its two remaining games against Rutgers and Michigan State (also very plausible), then Penn State wins the Big Ten East. If Oklahoma wins, they get a top 10 victory, and the December 3 bedlam versus Oklahoma State might give them a second.

If the Wolverines and Buckeyes both win this week, what essentially happens is their meeting on November 26 turns into a game to see who gets one of the spots in the top four of the College Football Playoff rankings. But with MI reeling from reports of Wilton Speight’s broken collarbone (though Jim Harbaugh is refuting reports of being out for the season), the Eastern Division has a real possibility to behold a dark horse as Penn State is now tied for the conference lead with a 6-1 record.

MI chose to be MI and found a way to lose to a struggling Iowa team and that makes the playoff picture a bit foggy for Ohio State.

But the Wolverines’ resume still took a hit on Saturday. While the Boomer Sooners just need to win out and they are Big XII Champs.

In the Pac-12, Washington must defeat Arizona State this weekend at home (a team to which it has lost 10 straight games) and then it must win the Apple Cup at current North Division leader, Washington State. He had a grand stage to impress voters on Saturday night at Iowa. Wilton Speight missed a litany of deep balls, going just 11 of 26 passing and throwing a pick to true freshman Manny Rugamba late in the fourth quarter.

“There’s absolutely no excuse”. “We have to win Saturday before we can even talk about any of that”. The road team is 7-0 ATS in the last seven games between the Buckeyes and Spartans. But with both the Buckeyes and Wolverines firmly in the Top 10 and in the mix for several Big Ten playoff scenarios, the stakes are extremely high for this year’s matchup.

“You can’t let praise or criticism get to you”, Wooden once said. “A lot of them that have done a tremendous amount positive things here at Rutgers, and that’s what our focus is and we want to go out and play our best for them”.

“You kind of know how it goes”, Gesicki said.