Updated SP+ rankings has 4 B1G teams in top 25 following Week 4

There’s still a long way to go in the 2019 season, but Week 4 started to shed some light on the real contenders in the B1G.

After entering the season as one of the heavy favorites to capture the conference, Jim Harbaugh and Michigan fell by the wayside in Madison. Wisconsin beat the Wolverines comfortably with the Badgers etching their name as the favorites in the B1G West.

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Elsewhere, Ohio State throttled Miami (OH) and Michigan State dominated Northwestern. With the failure of the Wolverines over the weekend, the Buckeyes remain the clear favorites in the East while the Wolverines will likely be fighting tooth-and-nail in rivalry showdowns with Michigan State and Penn State.

Heading into Week 5, ESPN’s SP+ rankings were shaken up quite a bit. Michigan fell all the way out of the top 25, landing at No. 26 on the list. Iowa was also bumped slightly while sitting idle, leaving four B1G teams in the top 25.

Here are the B1G teams inside the SP+ Top 25:

• No. 2 – Ohio State
• No. 5 – Wisconsin
• No. 11 – Penn State
• No. 20 – Michigan State

Bill Connelly particularly noted that the system is bullish on Ohio State:

Against a schedule that has featured no heavyweights but minimal dead weight…the Buckeyes are winning games by an average score of 54-9. They are the only team with a top-five offensive and defensive SP+ rating at the moment, and they are up to second overall, 2.5 adjusted points per game behind Alabama and 1.8 ahead of Clemson.

It will be interesting to see how these rankings hold up moving forward.

Paul Harvey

Paul is a lifelong fan and student of all things college football. He has been covering college football since 2017 and the B1G since 2018.