Rutgers-centric Big Ten Football Power Rankings Week 9, 2019
By Ed Stein
This week Empire Writes Back continues our Big Ten Football Power Rankings (with a Rutgers twist). Two conference teams are in the Top 5 of the polls.
Welcome to the next edition of our Big Ten Power Rankings. Now through the end of November, we will do this on a weekly basis. The conference finished Week 9 of the 2019 season with six Top 25 teams, which includes two in the top five, as well as three undefeated teams. As of now, the Big Ten will have something to say about who gets into the College Football Playoff in January.
All 14 teams were in action, Week 9. The intra-conference games went mostly as expected. Upsets, however, once again had an effect on the Big Ten and the national polls this week. Michigan needed a huge win at home over then eighth-ranked Notre Dame and got it. Additionally, Oklahoma’s loss to Kansas State put Penn State into the top five.
There are some minor moves in our power rankings. This is the Big Ten, up to 11 teams are still in the hunt for a bowl game (the conference has 10 Bowl tie-ins). Even so, the divide between the top teams and bottom teams is still big and the top three have separated themselves from the rest. Here are our power rankings
14. Northwestern (1-6 overall, 0-5 Big Ten)
Last Week vs No. 20 Iowa: Another bad loss for the Wildcats. They fell at home to Iowa 20-0. Northwestern’s defense held Iowa quarterback Nate Stanley to under 50 percent passing. Once again the Cats struggled to score points of there own. This Week at Indiana: A road trip to Bloomington, IN is in the cards as Northwestern faces the conference’s biggest surprise, the Indiana Hoosiers. It doesn’t look good for the Wildcats.