It’s Bucky or bust.
There will be no Big Ten participant in the four-team College Football Playoff unless Wisconsin gets from 9-0 to 13-0, which will require beating Iowa and Michigan at home, Minnesota on the road, then the Big Ten East champion — Ohio State? Penn State? Michigan State? — in the conference title game.
Who’s betting on the Badgers?
I’m not. I still see a very good, but not great, team with a dangerously flawed passing game and a list of vanquished opponents that doesn’t offer anything conclusive about the Badgers’ belonging among the national elite.
Pretty much everyone who votes in a national poll or ranks the Big Ten’s teams now has Wisconsin ahead of the rest of the conference. I do, as you’ll see below. Yet how many of us would pick the Badgers to beat Ohio State or Penn State on a neutral field one week from now? I can’t say with any conviction that I would.
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Is Wisconsin the class of the league? Is Ohio State, which just got destroyed by 31 points at Iowa? Is it one of the Buckeyes’ fellow two-loss teams (Penn State, Michigan State, Michigan)? Is it three-loss Iowa or even three-loss Northwestern, which dealt the Hawkeyes their last defeat and have won four in a row?
We just don’t know. Well, I don’t. And that’s why I’m betting the playoff will go on — for the first time — without the Big Ten.
Question of the week
What’ll be the playoff committee’s new rankings look like Tuesday?
Georgia and Alabama almost certainly will remain Nos. 1 and 2. Notre Dame should stay put at No. 3 after its victory against Wake Forest. The only mystery is whether Oklahoma will move up from No. 5 after its huge victory at Oklahoma State. That would mean swapping spots with Clemson, the No. 4 last week, which is coming off a clutch comeback victory at N.C. State.
Say what?
‘‘Going for three in a row?’’
A reader named Joseph sent me that short — but effective — email after a Week 10 preview in which I predicted Northwestern would lose at Nebraska. Much as I had predicted the Cats would lose to Michigan State the week before and to Iowa the week before that.
I saw Joseph’s email again Sunday, and it felt like a clean, hard jab to the jaw. Short but effective. Good stuff.
Big Ten power rankings
1. Wisconsin (9-0, 6-0): Congrats on the monumental victory against — who was it again? — Indiana.
2. Penn State (7-2, 4-2): Remember 2016, when the ball always seemed to bounce the Nittany Lions’ way? These things have a way of evening out.
3. Ohio State (7-2, 5-1 Big Ten): Can we all agree the 55-24 debacle in Iowa City was the worst loss of Urban Meyer’s career?
4. Michigan State (7-2, 5-1): Beating Penn State on a field goal at the gun was the perfect way to bounce back from an overtime defeat in Evanston.
5. Iowa (6-3, 3-3): If the Hawkeyes go to Madison and pound Wisconsin like they did Ohio State, maybe they should get back on the bus and head straight for Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
6. Michigan (7-2, 4-2): It wasn’t long ago that the Wolverines couldn’t find a running game to save their lives, but look at them now. Look out for this team down the stretch.
7. Northwestern (6-3, 4-2): The offensive line I’ve been ripping on all season performed like a well-oiled machine at Nebraska. The worm indeed has turned.
8. Nebraska (4-5, 3-3): At Minnesota, at Penn State, home against Iowa. Any chance there are there two victories in there?
9. Purdue (4-5, 2-4): When even the Boilermakers are beating Illinois by three touchdowns . . . well, let’s just say good for them.
10. Rutgers (4-5, 3-3): A 3-1 stretch and — boom — they’re talking contract extension for coach Chris Ash in Jersey.
11. Minnesota (4-5, 1-5): It’s awfully hard to win when your passing game is nonexistent.
12. Maryland (4-5, 2-4): The remaining opponents are Michigan, Michigan State and Penn State. Good luck with that.
13. Indiana (3-6, 0-6): This is a team that outplayed Ohio State for a half and took Michigan to overtime. Go figure.
14. Illinois (2-7, 0-6): Illini vs. Hoosiers on Saturday in Champaign. Contain your excitement if you can.
Follow me on Twitter @SLGreenberg.
Email: sgreenberg@suntimes.com
