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ESPN’s FPI predicts outcome of every Week 5 B1G game
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The Big Ten shook out and shaped up a touch more after Week 4’s games, minus the league’s top team, Ohio State, whose game at Maryland was cancelled due to Covid-19 protocols.
ESPN has released their FPI picks for the upcoming Week 5, giving each Big Ten team’s odds for victory in percentage format.
Despite Indiana’s historic 3-0 start and Saturday’s drubbing of Michigan State, 24-0, in East Lansing, Ohio State is favored to beat the Hoosiers in Columbus by a 90-percent to 10-percent margin, an almost sure loss, according to ESPN.
Wisconsin, (2-0), is a team chasing its B1G West rivals after forced cancellations of two games due to Covid in an already truncated season. The Badgers will get their shot at division leader Northwestern next Saturday in Evanston. ESPN has the the 13th ranked Badgers favored 86-percent to the no. 23 ranked Wildcats’ 14-percent.
Penn State, a pre-season dark-horse league favorite, lost at winless Nebraska Saturday to fall to 0-4, and won’t see their schedule let up next week. The 2-2 Iowa Hawkeyes, fresh off of two blowout wins over the last two weeks, will be favored 55.6-percent to Penn State’s 44.4 in Happy Valley.
The rest of the league’s ESPN FPI odds are as follows:
- Michigan State (33.9%) vs Maryland (66.1%)
- Purdue (57.0%) vs Minnesota (43.0%)
- Michigan (63.3%) vs Rutgers (36.7%)
- Illinois (19.8%) vs Nebraska (80.2%)
- Indiana (10%) vs Ohio State (90%)
- Iowa (55.6%) vs Penn State (44.4%)
- Wisconsin (86.0%) vs Northwestern (14.0%)
Mark Schipper is a reporter, sportswriter, and aspiring novelist living in Chicago, Illinois.