Michigan State football let one slip away on a rainy night in Boston, and they’re going to feel the effect of that in our weekly power rankings.
The Spartans squandered numerous opportunities and a late lead in a sloppy loss at Boston College on Saturday. This was the first loss of the season for Michigan State, who simply made too many costly mistakes to win a road game of this nature.
Michigan State is now 3-1 overall and will turn its focus to a tough conference slate coming up. So where does Michigan State land in our updated power rankings? Check out those updated power rankings below:
18. Purdue
Purdue got smoked again this week, losing by three scores in a road matchup at Oregon State. The Boilermakers went 1-2 in non-conference play with its lone win coming against an FCS school. It looks like it’ll be a long year for Purdue.
17. Northwestern
Northwestern’s offense was non-existent in a road loss at Washington this week. The Wildcats are now 2-2 and I’m not confident they’ll be getting back to a bowl game this year.
16. UCLA
I’ve been extremely critical of UCLA so far this year, but I’ll give them credit for their performance against LSU this week. Well, at least for the first half of that game before the Tigers pulled away in the second half.
15. Minnesota
Minnesota was handled in a home rivalry matchup with Iowa this week. The Golden Gophers are going to be hard-pressed to reach bowl eligibility this year from what I’ve seen in the first four weeks of the year.
14. Wisconsin
Wisconsin was off this week but the Badgers got some bad news on the injury front, with starting quarterback Tyler Van Dyke ruled out for the rest of the year. That was the fear coming out of the Alabama game in week three and was confirmed earlier this week. Wisconsin heads to USC next week.
Click here for more Wisconsin coverage
13. Maryland
Maryland took care of business in its final non-conference game of the year, beating FCS foe Villanova by double-digits. The Terps went 3-0 in out of conference play and will now get back into league play with a trip to Indiana next week.
12. Michigan State
Good Michigan State is a top half team in the Big Ten. Bad Michigan State is not. The Spartans were on the bad side this week in a disappointing loss at Boston College. If Michigan State can clean up the turnovers and turn field goal drives into touchdowns, then they’ll move up the rankings.
11. Washington
The Huskies bounced back from their poor performance last week to handle lousy Northwestern in their Big Ten opener. Next week’s road trip to Rutgers will be a very intriguing game and tell us a lot about both of these teams.
Click here for more Washington coverage
10. Nebraska
Nebraska finally faced some adversity this year and they collapsed under the pressure. The Cornhuskers appear to be more of a middle-tier Big Ten team instead of in the upper class of the league.
Click here for more Nebraska coverage
9. Rutgers
Rutgers continues to impress, this week beating Virginia Tech on the road. The Scarlet Knights are 3-0 on the year and appear destined for a second straight bowl game this year.
8. Iowa
Iowa dominated the Golden Gophers on the ground to earn a big-time road rivalry win. Kaleb Johnson ran for more than 200 yards and is quickly emerging as one of the best running backs in the Big Ten.
Click here for more Iowa coverage
7. Indiana
Indiana continues to dominate their inferior opponents — this week it was against Charlotte. The Hoosiers are clearly a much better team than we’ve seen in years and have another winnable game this week against Maryland.
6. USC
USC let one slip away in the Big House. The Trojans proved they can hang in the Big Ten but a few missed tackles on a late run by Michigan running back Kalel Mullings did them in. That’s a game they’ll look back at the end of year and point to as a potential reason why they miss out on the College Football Playoff.
Click here for more USC coverage
5. Illinois
Is Illinois actually good? The simple answer is yes. The Fighting Illini are well-coached and have enough talent to hang with nearly everyone in this league. And if quarterback Luke Altmyer continues to play as well as he did this week against Nebraska, then they’re truly dangerous in this league.
4. Michigan
Winning with defense and running the ball. That’s the recipe for Michigan to win right now. This approach worked against USC in a much-needed win over the Trojans, but long term this will hold them back of contending for a fourth straight Big Ten title if they can’t develop a passing game.
Click here for more Michigan coverage
3. Oregon
Oregon was off this week and is ultimately tied with Penn State as the next-best team behind Ohio State right now. The Ducks will play their inaugural Big Ten game this week at UCLA.
Click here for more Oregon coverage
2. Penn State
The Nittany Lions made easy work of Kent State this week to remain unbeaten on the year. Things will get interesting this week as Penn State welcomes red-hot Illinois to Happy Valley for a ranked matchup.
Click here for more Penn State coverage
1. Ohio State
Ohio State got off to a slow start in its win over Marshall, but in the end they still won by five touchdowns. The Buckeyes remain the top team in the league and will hit the road for the first time this week in matchup at Michigan State.
Click here for more Ohio State coverage
Contact/Follow us @The SpartansWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Michigan state news, notes and opinion. You can also follow Robert Bondy on X @RobertBondy5.
This article originally appeared on Spartans Wire: Big Ten Power Rankings: Where does MSU land after loss at BC?
