B1G Bowl Projections, Week 8: Stunner leads to shakeup

Purdue might have wrecked the Big Ten’s best chance at the College Football Playoff.

Actually, that’s only partly true. Ohio State beat Ohio State on Saturday every bit as much as Purdue beat Ohio State.

The Boilermakers crushed the Buckeyes 49-20 at Ross-Ade Stadium, doing massive damage to OSU’s bid for a CFP spot.

Purdue also rocketed back into our Big Ten bowl projections with its victory.

The CFP picture is as muddy as ever. If Michigan runs the table from here, you have to like the Wolverines’ chances at the CFP just because all those SEC teams will beat each other up (except untouchable Alabama, of course).

But if Michigan slips, the B1G is in massive danger of missing the CFP in consecutive seasons. OSU has looked unimpressive for weeks and as for those supposedly signature wins over Penn State and TCU? The ink is fading from those signatures week by week.

Aside from OSU and Michigan, the B1G has a third one-loss team: Iowa. But the Hawkeyes lost to Wisconsin and are seriously lacking in quality wins — in fact the one possible big win remaining is in the B1G title game, should Iowa win the West Division.

In other words, things look bad for the B1G, and a lack of quality nonconference wins is to blame.

Penn State moves down a couple of spots in our projections even after defeating Indiana. The Nittany Lions don’t look anything like the league contender they were supposed to be.

Minnesota, which lost to previously winless Nebraska, falls out of these bowl projections. The Golden Gophers are on a four-game losing streak, all within the conference, to fall to last place in the West Division.

Now, on to this week’s projections: