The Week 5 action around the Big Ten resulted in a number of blowouts by the teams you may have expected. Michigan wasted no time taking care of business in its first road trip of the season at Nebraska. Meanwhile, Penn State had another rough outing on offense on the road in Big Ten play before pulling away for a win. Those two results, when compared to each other, showed which team truly deserved to be sitting on top of the Big Ten power rankings this week.
I elevated Penn State to the top spot a week ago despite Ohio State managing to win on the road at Notre Dame. But now, after Week 5, I cannot justify keeping Penn State in the top spot. Not after a poor start at Northwestern two weeks after a bit of an offensive struggle on the road at Illinois. So not only did I knock Penn State off the top spot. I also bumped them down behind a team that didn’t play a down this weekend, Ohio State.
Here is how I have every Big Ten team currently ranked following all of the results from Week 5.