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Big Ten Football Power Rankings: Week 4 edition

By Connor Muldowney

Sep 17, 2016; South Bend, IN, USA; Michigan State Spartans wide receiver Donnie Corley (9) celebrates after MSU defeated the Notre Dame Fighting Irish 36-28 at Notre Dame Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 17, 2016; South Bend, IN, USA; Michigan State Spartans wide receiver Donnie Corley (9) celebrates after MSU defeated the Notre Dame Fighting Irish 36-28 at Notre Dame Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports /
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Who tops our Big Ten football power rankings after Week 4 action and where do the Spartans stand?

Another week has passed and we are entering into Week 4 of the college football season. When we are this far into the year, that usually means Big Ten football action is beginning and that holds true with plenty of conference matchups on tap this week.

About a fourth of the way through the regular season, college football fans are already thinking to themselves “slow down” since the offseason was long enough. College football seems to fly by every year and we are left waiting for the next season to begin.

The Big Ten showed up and showed off in Week 3 against tough opponents, for the most part. While there were a couple of teams that struggled with inferior opponents — looking at you, Iowa and Wisconsin — three conference programs took down ranked foes, two of which came on the road.

Ohio State traveled to Oklahoma and stole a win while Michigan State went down to South Bend and came out victorious over Notre Dame. Nebraska secured a nice early-season victory over Oregon at home as well.

Let’s take a look at this week’s Big Ten football power rankings,

Purdue got a much-needed bye week after losing 38-20 to Cincinnati at home. Darrell Hazell and the Boilermakers don’t seem to be improving much throughout the past few seasons and that might spell the end of the once-promising head coach’s tenure following the 2016 campaign. He will need to end non-conference play with a win over Nevada this week.

This week: vs. Nevada

The Lovie Smith era is off to an incredible slow start in Champaign. The former NFL head coach took over the program this offseason and it looked to be a great hire and a potential boost for recruiting as well. However, he has seen the Fighting Illini lose two of three games to start the year, including a 48-23 loss to North Carolina at home last week and a 34-10 defeat at the hands of Western Michigan at home this week. The Fighting Illini are in desperate need of a victory, but a bye week looms.

This week: Bye week

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