When I speak to contenders, I am speaking to league championship as opposed to the big tamale. My thought is the Big Ten, to have an outright champion, that champion will have to go undefeated.

Penn State certainly came into Saturday as a contender. Ranked, senior QB. Offense clicking. Defense dominate. They play a two loss Michigan who is starting a freshman QB for his second game and the Wolves win. Put Penn state into the pretender/spoiler category. Hosting OSU at night certainly gives the Nits the chance to be a spoiler.

Iowa trips up against Northern Iowa. The Big Ten was there for the taking. The scheduling Gods gave Iowa a schedule without OSU or Michigan. Cointender-Nope! The Hawkeyes gave Wisconsin a game, but lost. Put the Hawks into the pretender category with limited opportunities to play spoiler because of their schedule.

Purdue=contender or pretender? Cupcake city continues for the Boilermakers this weekend as they host Notre Dame(just couldn't pass that up). Offensive stats are very impressive, but we have been down this road before. Smart money says pretender.

OSU, playing like a contender, but again-schedule? Washington is their signature victory and Washington was beaten by UCLA this past weekend. Saturday was a glorified scrimmage in front of 105,000.

Illinois opens the conference season with a victory over Indiana. I can not put the Illini into a contender category, but will reexam if they beat the spoiler Nittney Lions this weekend. My guess is pretender/spoiler.

Wisconsin is a team I have not seen this year. ABC showed us here in South florida USC/Washington State Saturday night. My impression is Wisconsin has not set the world on fire yet, but who cares. They are a contender at this time.

Michigan can thank God there is a conference season which gives them an opportunity to redeem this season. They are a contender, and play OSU at home. They had to beat Penn State and did.

Michigan State=contender/pretender/spoiler? Signaure win over Notre Dame-just love saying that. Only won by three scores though. Mark Dantonio is a good coach, but MSU can't be a contender this year, but spoiler I will buy.

Indiana I see as having chance to be a spoiler which is more than I can say for the Golden Gophers and Norhtwestern.

I would love to know opinions of others as to the contenders/pretenders/spoilers in the other conferences. For example in the SEC is Kentucky a contender or pretender? Obviously Arkansas is a spoiler. How about Georgia? Alabama? Again, I would be interested in your thoughts.

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Bugeatersteve said:

	Good article JEH45. I will see if I can throw something on the wall for the Big 12. I still like Wisconsin as the Dark Horse.
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September 27, 2007
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Lloyds Apple said:

	On ESPiN they were talking about if OSU goes undefeated, they still might not make it over a one loss SEC team or USC. What a freaking joke.
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September 27, 2007
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