Ranking Big Ten's Week 11 efforts: 1. OSU, 2. Minnesota, 14. Iowa

These are the rankings of the Big Ten's football performances of Week 11. Three of them were good. Two were just good enough and not a bit more. The rest? You know.

1. Ohio State, W 49-37

at Michigan State

Lost in the flood about Big Ten football was this little detail: Urban Meyer came into this game with a 20-0 Big Ten (regular-season) record. It's now 21-0.

If nothing else, people around the nation can't say the Big Ten completely lacks talentless, uninteresting teams. This was an offensive feeding frenzy, with 1,104 total yards.

In a league with the nation's best running backs (Ameer Abdullah, Melvin Gordon, Tevin Coleman, David Cobb), OSU freshman quarterback J.T. Barrett may be the Big Ten's Offensive Player of the Year. He passed for three touchdowns and 300 yards, rushed for two TDs and 86 yards against a defense we all agreed was pretty good.

'This is one for the ages — that's how much respect we have for our opponent,' Meyer said. 'We played a top-10 team and really played our best — on the road.'

The Buckeyes are going to their second-straight Big Ten championship game.

2. Minnesota, W 51-14

vs. Iowa

It's hard not to give the Gophers the No. 1 spot after this focused, dominant performance.

Minnesota quarterback Mitch Leidner got some raps here or his passing earlier this season. Consider this a mea culpa. Leidner was money this game, and looked like a quarterback who had a 9-3 record as a starter. Which he is.

Ohio State is at Minnesota Saturday. Who knew that would be every bit as potentially interesting a matchup as the Nebraska-Wisconsin clash the same day?

3. Wisconsin, W 34-16

at Purdue

Good teams own games like this, and the Badgers owned the Boilermakers.

It was 24-16 in the third quarter, but Wisconsin was the better team from pillar to post. It gained 489 yards allowed 230.

We knew the Badgers could run. And run. And run. But this should scare Nebraska and Iowa and Minnesota, the Badgers, remaining opponents:

Joel Stave passed for a season-best 219 yards and two touchdowns. He threw for 143 yards in the second quarter alone. This was a guy who had the passing yips at the start of the season, and who hadn't completed half his passes this season.

Oh yeah, Melvin Gordon rushed for 205 yards.

4. Penn State, W 13-7

at Indiana

Penn State is one win from being bowl-eligible and hosts Temple Saturday.

As for this game, the less said the better.

The headline at Black Shoe Diaries: 'Technically, That Was Football.'

5. Michigan, W 10-9

at Northwestern

Michigan (5-5) is one win from being bowl-eligible. It will have to beat Maryland in Ann Arbor on Nov. 22 to go play in Detroit in December, or somewhere, because the Wolverines aren't beating Ohio State in Columbus. Or getting within four touchdowns of the Buckeyes.

But hey, Michigan won a road game in the conference. So that's, uh, progress?

6-9. Illinois, Maryland, Nebraska, Rutgers (idle)

10. Michigan State, L 49-37

vs. Ohio State

The Spartans would have been in decent shape to reach the College Football Playoff had they won this game.

One domino fell Saturday in Auburn. Maybe Alabama will stumble against Mississippi State. Maybe TCU will falter at Texas on Thanksgiving. Beating Ohio State and then the Big Ten West champ would have padded the Spartans' resume.

But no. Michigan State could have laid claim to being the Big Ten's biggest program with a second-straight win over Ohio State. But on its home field, it couldn't stop the Buckeyes.

Bob Hunter of the Columbus Dispatch wrote this: Last year's loss to the Spartans was just an upset. It wasn't the start of a dangerous trend.

11. Purdue, L 34-16

vs. Wisconsin

The Boilermakers are just 3-7, but they aren't last year's Boilers. They don't have the players to beat teams like Wisconsin, but they are competing every week.

'If you can take one positive from our football team right now, they are battling,' Purdue Coach Darrell Hazell said. '

That's the major difference from last year,' Hazell said. 'We're not making enough plays to win games right now. The sideline is completely different when something adverse happens to our football team. It's a much more confident team.

'At the end of the day, you have to make enough plays to beat people. That's kind of where we are.'

12. Indiana, L 13-7

vs. Penn State

If Hoosier starting quarterback Nate Sudfeld hadn't had an injury at Iowa that cost him the rest of this season ...

Indiana allowed 330 yards Saturday, the least they'd surrendered in any of Kevin Wilson's 29 Big Ten games as the Hoosiers' coach. It was the fewest points a Wilson team had allowed in the Big Ten, too.

But now Wilson has no offense. Football is cruel, folks.

13. Northwestern, L 10-9

vs. Michigan

Northwestern scored a touchdown with three seconds left in the game to pull within a point of Michigan. Wildcats Coach Pat Fitzgerald called for a 2-point conversion try rather than to kick the extra-point for overtime.

Quarterback Trevor Siemian sprinted back after taking the center snap and slipped to the turf. Ballgame.

That's four straight losses for the 'Cats. Which is worse, getting decimated in the first quarter at Iowa, or losing on a slip like that with three seconds remaining? There is no correct answer.

14. Iowa, L 51-14

at Minnesota

To explain the Hawkeyes' ranking here this week, I direct you to the final score of this game.

No questions should be necessary.