Wisconsin 4-2 @ Purdue 3-2: This weekend is Purdue’s Homecoming and the Boilers have played well on Homecoming Weekends … winning 12 of the last 17. That said, the Badgers have beaten the Boilermakers six straight times and last year, hammered them by 45 points, 62-17! Wisconsin has also won the last four times they were in West Lafayette by an average of 21 points! Sully’s CFP was both surprised and disappointed with the Boilers performance against Michigan last week-end! Given the overall team speed and a very good defensive front Purdue has … the 44-14 pounding the Wolves put on them was completely unexpected. Meanwhile, the Badgers were beating an Illini team, 31-14, who performed better than the Wisconsin crowd during the “Jump Around” at the end of the 3rd quarter. If Illinois had played with the same energy they demonstrated during the “Jump Around” the Badgers would have been danced into oblivion!
Ohio State 6-0 @ Indiana 2-3: While it will never be said publicly, Urban Meyer and the Bucks are giving Jimmy Delany, the Big Ten Comminisher, a huge Migraine. OSU is not eligible for Post-Season play and the way the rest of the League is playing the Conference will not get a second team in a BCS game! Big dollars lost! Penn State (ineligible for the next four years) is not helping either… they are now 2-0 in league play and beat the last undefeated team (that follows the rules) Northwestern, 39-28, over the weekend! OSU has beaten the Hoosiers 18 straight times … last losing to Indiana in 1988 (remember these teams do not play every year … that is for you bean counters). The Bucks have also won 8 straight times in Bloomington, including last year’s, 34-20 escape … score was tied 20-20 late in 3rd Quarter! Indiana is coming off a tough loss to Michigan State, 31-27, while OSU annihilated Nebraska, 63-38!
Illinois 2-4 @ Michigan 3-2: In 2010, these two teams played a game that would have left the Elliott brothers (Bump coached Michigan and Pete coached Illinois in the early 1960, both prided themselves and the respective teams on defense) shocked and Bo Schembechler would have tried, to not only fire the Michigan Coach, Rich Rod, … he would have tried to fire the Illinois coach, Ron Zook, as well! The game went into overtime and ended with a Michigan victory … 67-65 .. the highest scoring game in Big Ten History! The contest was played in the Big House and did as much as any loss to to get Rich Rod fired at Michigan. The Wolverines … the real Wolverines … would never give up 65 points … to anyone … was the thinking of the Michigan faithful! Last year, Wolverines beat the Illini, 31-14, as Fitzgerald Touussaint rushed for 192 yards against, at game time, the Big Ten’s best rush defense!
Iowa 3-2 @ Michigan State 4-2: The last time these teams met at Spartan Stadium, the game went down to the final snap; with Iowa completing a 7 yard Touchdown pass on 4th down as time expired … giving the Hawks a 15-13 victory over the Spartans! The Hawkeyes have won only once in their last five trips to East Lansing. The MSU had not lost a Big Ten home game in the past 2 years and are a perfect 8-0 in that time frame. The streak was broken by OSU, 17-16, on September 29th of this year! Michigan State is 1-1 in the conference while Iowa is 1-0 in the Big Ten.
Northwestern 5-1 @ Minnesota 4-1: Northwestern has won four of the last five meetings, with the Golden Gophers only win coming in 2009, 35-24! Both teams are off to great starts in 2012 and yet, both lost big games in their last outings. Northwestern fell to Penn State, 39-28, this past Saturday … missing a chance to go to 6-0 for the first time since 1962! Meanwhile, Minnesota traveled to Iowa City with a chance to open the season at 5-0 … but lost to the Hawks, 33-13. The head coaches here have done excellent work in 2012, Jerry Kill, has his team playing surprisingly well in his second season; while Patty Fitzgerald may be the best coach in the Conference … given he tends to do more with less than any other coach in the Big Ten!
Penn State 4-2: has a Bye Week … Next up for the Lions … @ Iowa
Nebraska 4-2: has a Bye Week … Next up for the Huskers … @ Northwestern
Check out Head to Head on the site for the Sully’s CFP Simulator to get a statistical analysis of these and other games!
http://sullyscollegefootballpage.com/Football_Stats/Matchup.cfm
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