The Fort Big Ten Power Rankings – Week 6: Michigan makes a statement, and a new last-place team

The Michigan Wolverines are 5-0 and in the early stages of defending their Big Ten crown.. After hundreds of gathered responses on The Fort, our premium message board, the Wolverines are still your top team in the Big Ten heading into the sixth 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 fifth week of the season.

1. Michigan (94.6% of first-place votes)

Previous rank: 1

After a 45-7 destruction of Nebraska in Lincoln during their first road trip of the season, Michigan fans are plenty confident about where their team sits in the Big Ten race. Concerns about the team’s schedule are overblown. If they continue to butcher every team they see over the next several weeks, they will be plenty ready for the gauntlet that comes in November.

2. Ohio State (56.4% of second-place votes)

Previous rank: 3

Ohio State is back up to No. 2 in the power rankings after an idle week. It may have more to do with how Penn State looked at Northwestern than anything else. Those two teams are a few weeks away from matching up in a Big Ten East pecking-order showdown. But OSU has been more impressive over the last few games than Penn State has been.

3. Penn State (56.4% of third-place votes)

Previous rank: 2

The September hype around the Nittany Lions has slowed down, but we are not far away from finding out just how good this PSU team is. They played around for too long with Northwestern, but eventually hit the accelerator in the second half. They are off this weekend before taking on Don Brown and UMass on Oct. 14. Their trip to Ohio State is set for Oct. 21.

4. Maryland (84.6% of fourth-place votes)

Previous rank: 4

It’s pretty clear Maryland is the fourth-best team in the conference at this point, which makes it a shame that it is in the toughest division in college football. Maryland could very well win 8-9 games, but how it does against U-M, OSU and Penn State will ultimately determine how high they can go. They head to Ohio State this Saturday for a major test in Columbus.

5. Wisconsin (64.1% of fifth-place votes)

Previous rank: 5

Wisconsin and Rutgers play this weekend in a game that has a lot more juice to it than it would have a month ago. Rutgers has already played a road game at Michigan and should be used to playing in tough environments. The Badgers are still finding their way under Luke Fickell and are coming off an off week. This is still the favorite to win the West division.

6. Rutgers (51.3% of sixth-place votes)

Previous rank: 6

We did not learn anything new about Rutgers after blowing out Wagner this past weekend. This weekend’s trip to Madison has a chance to be a signature victory during Greg Schiano’s second stint with the program.

7. Iowa (38.5% of seventh-place votes)

Previous rank: 7

Cade McNamara is done for the season, and Iowa’s offense was already struggling mightily. Somehow, Iowa still is sitting at 4-1, but there is not a single “gimme” the rest of the way on their schedule. Their standing here could go either direction, honestly.

8. Minnesota (43.6% of eighth-place votes)

Previous rank: 10

Michigan heads to Minnesota this weekend for a night game showdown with the Golden Gophers. The loss to Northwestern was embarrassing and unacceptable, but the message this week out of Minneapolis is that an upset over the nation’s No. 2 team could serve as a springboard into the rest of the season. The Wolverines will see a physical and desperate team on Saturday.

9. Purdue (25.6% of 9th-place votes)

Previous rank: 13

Former Illinois defensive coordinator and Purdue head coach Ryan Walters blew out his former team on Saturday. The Boilermakers have been all over the place this year, but a win at Iowa on Saturday could put them right back in the Big Ten West race.

10. Nebraska (30.8% of 10th-place votes)

Previous rank: 8

Nebraska had rebounded solidly from an 0-2 start, but had the brakes blown off of them on Saturday by Michigan. But their next four games are extremely winnable against Illinois, Northwestern, Purdue and Michigan State. Do not rule out a mid-season surge from Matt Rhule and company to get out of an 0-2 in Big Ten play.

11. Illinois (31.6% of 11th-place votes)

Previous rank: 9

This team played closer-than-expected games against Toledo and Florida Atlantic and got the brakes beat off of it by Penn State and Purdue. Friday night’s game against Nebraska is a must-win if they have any hopes of getting to bowl eligibility this season.

12. Michigan State (28.2% of 12th-place votes)

Previous rank: 14

At this point, piling on poor MSU is a tired bit. The headlines and box scores speak for themselves. They rose in the ranking this week by virtue of simply not being as bad as the teams behind them. Michigan State is on the bye this week before heading to Rutgers and hosting Michigan.

13. Northwestern (38.5% of 13th-place votes)

Previous rank: 12

One would think Northwestern could grab win No. 3 this Saturday against Howard, but nothing is a given with them. Their best shot in the Big Ten at this point is to catch a team sleeping on them like Minnesota did.

14. Indiana (48.7% of 14th-place votes)

Previous rank: 11

Yikes. That’s all there is to be said here. It took overtime to beat Akron and the only other win is a buy game against Indiana State. This team may go winless in Big Ten play, and that should put Tom Allen on the hot seat.