Sports Illustrated says Iowa 9-3 this season, 5-3 in the Big Ten, Marcus Coker league offensive MVP

For yet another year, there will be no Big Ten team as the national football champion.

So says Sports Illustrated, basically, which has no Big Ten club doing better than 10-2 in the regular season. That would be Wisconsin and Nebraska. SI picks Nebraska over Wisconsin in the league's first title game, presumably two months after the Badgers beat the Cornhuskers in Madison.

SI picks Nebraska and Michigan State to go 6-2 in the Legends (dumb name) division, with NU getting the tiebreaker by virtue of beating the Spartans in Lincoln.

Iowa, the magazine says, will go 9-3 overall and 5-3 in the conference. My question to you of the Hawkeye ilk: Would you take a 9-3, 5-3 right now?

Get this: SI picks Ohio State to go 7-5 overall and 4-4 in the Big Ten. Those were Iowa's regular-season numbers last year. The magazine has Illinois falling well short of expectations at 4-8, 1-7, while it has Northwestern going 5-3, 8-4.

SI says Iowa sophomore running back Marcus Coker will be the league's offensive MVP. That's a pretty tall order. Do you think it will come to fruition? If it does, that means Coker has quickly approached Shonn Greene territory.