The Fort's Big Ten Power Rankings: Week 5 – Fans not buying OSU, MSU hits a new low

The Michigan Wolverines are 4-0 and in the early stages of defending their Big Ten crown.. After hundreds of gathered responses on The Fort, The Wolverine’s premium message board, the Wolverines are still your top team in the Big Ten heading into the fourth week of the season.

Each week, we will give the community the chance to power rank the teams in the Big Ten Conference. Below is The Wolverine community’s ranking of how they see things after the second week of the season.

1. Michigan (67.8% of first-place votes)

Previous rank: 1

Michigan still comes in as the top dog after confidence was shaken a bit in the Bowling Green game. The Wolverines were dominant after an opening-drive touchdown given up to Rutgers. It seems unlikely they get knocked out of this spot until someone beats them. We’ll learn a lot about them with road trips over the next two weeks to Nebraska and Minnesota.

2. Penn State (48.9% of second-place votes)

Previous rank: 2

Penn State remains locked into the No. 2 spot after a butchering of the Iowa Hawkeyes last weekend in Happy Valley. It is hard to argue their perception as the biggest threat to U-M for a Big Ten title this year, but the contenders behind them both had impressive showings in different ways last weekend.

3. Ohio State (60.0% of third-place votes)

Previous rank: 3

Ohio State showed it could hold up in a physical, four-quarter bar fight and should be commended for that. A win on the road against a top-10 team in Notre Dame deserves more than a tip of the cap. But instead of letting it speak for itself, Ryan Day cut a WWE promo beating his chest for how tough his program is and stuffing 86-year-old Lou Holtz in a locker in the process

4. Maryland (51.1% of fourth-place votes)

Previous rank: 5

Maryland is off to a nice start to the year, even if guilty of playing down to its competition at times throughout the early part of the year. They will likely move to 5-0 this weekend with a home game against Indiana, but the true test comes next week when they head to Ohio State.

5. Wisconsin (31.8% of fifth-place votes)

Previous rank: 7

The Badgers are 3-1 and on a bye, which might come at a good time for a Luke Fickell team still figuring it out. Their physicality will be tested next week when Rutgers comes to Madison. Right now, they are sort of the Big Ten West favorite by default.

6. Rutgers (36.4% of sixth-place votes)

Previous rank: 8

Rutgers sliding into the sixth slot might say a lot more about the conference at large than it does their play. With that said, the Scarlet Knights have All-Big Ten talent at all three levels of their defense, and they are still coming into their own offensively. Michigan was just too much to handle last week.

7. Iowa (31.8% of seventh-place votes)

Previous rank: 4

Iowa has a get-right game this weekend at home against Michigan State, which could help Brian Ferentz’s quest to score enough points to keep his job get back on track. The Hawkeyes were shut out last week, and Cade McNamara and Erick All have not been the lift that was hyped up for the Iowa offense. But they are still very much alive in the West division.

8. Nebraska (23.9% of eighth-place votes)

Previous rank: 11

Nebraska is on a two-game win streak after victories over Northern Illinois and Louisiana Tech and has the option game working extremely well with quarterback Heinrich Haarberg. Michigan comes to town this weekend with a chance for the Cornhuskers to show how far they have come in a few weeks. But it is their toughest challenge yet.

9. Illinois (21.6% of ninth-place votes)

Previous rank: 9

A six-point win over Florida Atlantic will not do a whole lot to fire people up about where Illinois stands. But in these power rankings, simply winning games can keep you afloat in the rankings. They have a big one with Purdue this weekend.

10. Minnesota (33.8% of sixth-place votes)

Previous rank: 7

Giving up 21 fourth-quarter points to Northwestern and losing in overtime is shameful. This team has already underwhelmed to start the year, and it is hard to take them seriously as a threat to win the West division. Perhaps P.J. Fleck can read “Everyone Poops” to his team again to get them on track.

11. Indiana (19.3% of 11th-place votes)

Previous rank: 13

Once again, wins can increase your standing here. Nobody is going to write home about a four-overtime win over Akron, but good for the Hoosiers, I guess. Wins will be hard to come by the rest of the way.

12. Northwestern (35.6% of 12th-place votes)

Previous rank: 14

In the upset of the century, Northwestern is out of the 14th-place slot for the first time in five weeks! They could very well return there, but kudos to the squad for earning a comeback win over Minnesota. They kept playing, and the Gophers let their foot off the gas.

13. Purdue (22.4% of 13th-place votes)

Previous rank: 10

The Boilermakers have lost three games on their home field this year already and have a shot to grab their first win in West Lafayette on Saturday against Illinois. But head coach Ryan Walters has his work cut out for him moving forward.

14. Michigan State (35.3% of 14th-place votes)

Previous rank: 12

Not that we ever thought Michigan fans would take it easy on their Spartan brethren, but they are now at rock bottom. And with Mel Tucker’s firing imminent and a trip to Iowa on the docket this weekend, it is only going to get uglier before it gets better. Rutgers will not be an easy road trip, and MSU returns from that to host Michigan at home.