There are two weeks left in October and just three weekends of conference play after that. Therefore, things need to begin happening soon for Penn State to have any chance of retaining the Big Ten championship for a second year in a row.
Who’s In: Iowa controls its own destiny and wins the conference title by finishing undefeated. Penn State, Ohio State and Michigan State remain worthy challengers. While Penn State needs some help, MSU and OSU would win the title if they win out.
Actually, all eleven teams remain technically in the race for the championship, but Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Purdue, Indiana and Illinois would certainly need a lot of strange turn-of-events to see that happen.
First, of course Penn State needs to take care of business and beat its latest opponent this weekend. That means beating the Michigan Wolverines at the Big House for the first time since 1996. A Penn State loss here would pretty much ruin any conference title talk in Happy Valley for this season.
Next, it would be really helpful for Iowa to finally lose a game. In this case, cheer on Michigan State, which hosts the Hawkeyes on Saturday night. The Spartans are 3-4 this decade versus Iowa, including a 16-13 victory last season in Iowa City. This is likely to be be Iowa’s final road test of the season and hardest game yet to win prior to its November 14th date in Columbus, OH versus Ohio State.
Michigan vs. Iowa - This Decade 2008/10/04 Michigan St 16 - Iowa 13 W 2007/10/27 Michigan St 27 - Iowa 34 L OT 2004/10/02 Michigan St 16 - Iowa 38 L 2003/09/27 Michigan St 20 - Iowa 10 W 2002/10/12 Michigan St 16 - Iowa 44 L 2001/10/13 Michigan St 31 - Iowa 28 W 2000/10/07 Michigan St 16 - Iowa 21 L
Elsewhere, while it would be helpful for Minnesota to defeat Ohio State and hand the Buckeyes their second conference loss, the result here doesn’t matter. Since Penn State plays OSU on November 7th, a PSU victory then would effectively deny Jim Tressel’s team its fifth consecutive title.
So the card this week is to Go State, Beat Michigan !!! and Go Michigan State!
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