For those that believed the Big Ten West Division finally began closing the gap on its East counterparts, well, Labor Day Weekend was a rude awakening.

After Week 1, it’s clear the top teams reside in the East. There’s no argument to be made other than four of the top five teams (Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State and Michigan State) are in the East, and the only team that even belongs in the same conversation right now with those four is Wisconsin.

The preseason conversation centered around Nebraska joining the conference’s elite, Northwestern’s potential with a 5-star quarterback, Minnesota’s experienced lineup taking the next step, Purdue’s exciting future with Jeff Brohm and reliable Iowa with its huge talent up front.

But each of those teams underwhelmed in a big way in Week 1. In fact, Wisconsin — with its question mark at quarterback — looked like a well-rounded team with its superstar running back firing on all cylinders.

Urban Meyer, who is well-versed in the East’s run of dominance since the Big Ten pivoted from the Legends and Leaders divisions, went as far as to call the West “a group of underachievers right now” during halftime of Iowa’s game on FS1 on Saturday.

“The one team that really put on a show, [Wisconsin] went down to Tampa, Florida, beat a South Florida team that you know had good players, they went on the road, I’m sure it was very hot down there,” Meyer said. “Other than that, you’re looking at a group of underachievers right now. You have Nebraska, who we thought would be [great], they played very well on defense, but their quarterback, who I thought would be an All-B1G type performer, Adrian Martinez, didn’t play like he did last year.

“Then you had Northwestern get beat by Stanford, Purdue lost to Nevada, Minnesota was in a street fight with South Dakota State and Iowa right now is in a battle with Miami (OH). Illinois had a big win over Akron, so you just don’t know. But when you see the eye test and what they did Week 1…Wisconsin looks like the best team.”

Meyer is spot on. It’s just one week, but it’s a disappointing development from a fan standpoint. The East has won all five conference title games in the current format, and aside from Jack Coan making strides (which is entirely possible), it’s difficult to envision that streak not continuing.

It’s hard to pick the most discouraging performance, but let’s start at the preseason West favorite, Nebraska. Against one of the worst FBS teams in the country, in its easiest game of the season, Nebraska was out-gained by South Alabama 314-276, and Adrian Martinez looked average (or even below average). The only positive was that it did not actually lose to that bottom-tier Sun Belt team (looking at you, Tennessee).

Then there’s Northwestern and Purdue, each of which had the chance to pick up road wins. Neither could close the deal. Minnesota didn’t inspire any confidence moving forward either, needing a fourth-quarter rally to get past FCS South Dakota State. Iowa pulled away late from a middling MAC team. Yawn.

Contrast that with the East, which won all seven of its games by 10 or more points. And everyone but Indiana did so in convincing fashion. Penn State’s performance was eye-opening, even though it was just Idaho. The Nittany Lions look well-equipped to challenge those East powers. Michigan State, however inept its offense continues to look, has a defense that will always keep it in games. Ohio State and Michigan, while certainly not playing their best, look like top-10 teams.

Wisconsin feels significantly ahead of the rest of the West, and belongs in that top tier with the four East teams. The only thing that could hold the Badgers back is their schedule. But then again, they just went down to Florida and whooped on South Florida, out-rushing the Bulls 234-26 and out-gaining them overall 433-157. Maybe it was a bit under the radar because it was a Friday night game, but Wisconsin’s season-opening performance was one of the best in the country.

It’s just one week, but this doesn’t feel like an overreaction: The heavy hitters once again are in the East, and everyone except Wisconsin is lagging behind.