College Football: Revisiting the Big Ten's Magnificent Week Four

Remember how only four or five months ago it seemed certain that Notre Dame would be joining the Big Ten?

Well, Week 4 of the 2010 college football season provides one reason why the Fighting Irish should never take that step.

I first noticed it when I was making my weekly picks on Friday, although it didn’t dawn on me what a truly horrendous weekend schedule this was until the conferences’ entire slate of games was put on a single screen by ESPN around 11 o’clock Saturday morning.

The Gameday crew had a good laugh about it, and even Todd McShay made an appearance in there and ribbed the conference for its “tough afternoon.”

Ahh, the pleasures and comforts of conference affiliation!

Let’s revisit this wonderful weekend shall we?

Northwestern 30

Central Michigan 25

Northwestern held off a late Chippewa rally to seal this victory and continue the Big Ten’s time honored tradition of milking free wins from the MAC conference.

Some Wildcat fans will undoubtedly tell you to watch out for Northwestern, because they are 4-0 baby!!!

So what if their three other victories were a two-point win over Vanderbilt, a beat down of Illinois State, and a comfortable win over Rice in front of 15,000 spectators?

This team has an 8-4 season written all over it, but of course the Wildcats don’t play Ohio State or Michigan this year, so who really cares? It must be nice to be able to lose every game you play to above .500 teams and still wind up at 8-4.

Michigan State 45

Northern Colorado 7

East Lansing doctors were concerned that Mark Dantonio would want to jump right back into action after suffering a small heart attack after his Spartans’ electrifying overtime victory over Notre Dame in Week 3.

The medical staff unanimously agreed that Dantonio would need at least a full week away from the game and prepared themselves to break the news to the head coach.

“That’s no problem,” Dantonio replied with a smile. “Did you guys see who we're playing this week? We didn’t even bother looking at film of Northern Colorado… in fact, I’m not even sure that any film of their team exists.”

The Spartans raced out to a 35-0 halftime lead and cruised home from there. We’ll see if this was a good tune-up game for Michigan State as they host Wisconsin this weekend.

Michigan 65

Bowling Green 21

I tuned into this game a little late and came to the broadcast with Michigan already up 21-0 and the announcers talking about Denard Robinson being hurt.

“Wow, of all the teams he fell prey to, it was BGSU,” I thought.

Luckily, the injury wasn’t too serious and the Wolverines didn’t even bother putting Robinson back in the game. But that didn’t stop old Shoelaces from accumulating 189 total yards in just nine snaps.

I think he’s good, or something.

Tate Forcier and his tiny little head finally got into a game and Michigan piled up 721 yards of offense in this thriller that was must-see TV for about seven minutes.

Wisconsin 70

Austin Peay 3

In another barn burner, Wisconsin held Austin Peay to 157 total yards, eight first downs and one 51-yard field goal.

The game was at one time 14-3, but the Badgers ripped off five touchdowns in the last 13 minutes of the first half to take a nice and comfortable lead into the break.

Wisconsin freshman running back James White carried the ball 11 times for 145 yards and four touchdowns.

Gold star for him!

Iowa 45

Ball State 0

Iowa did Wisconsin one better by shutting out Ball State and holding the Cardinals to just 112 total yards in the afternoon.

In case you didn’t know it, this Iowa defense means business.

Ricky Stanzi brought his “A” game and finished the day with 288 yards and three touchdowns. More importantly, he did not throw an interception.

Bonus points for the Hawkeyes as they wore absolutely beautiful throwback uniforms. Why they did so against Ball State, I do not know.

Toledo 31

Purdue 20

Once again, another Big Ten team beats up on a MAC… wait, what?

Purdue!

PURDUE!!!

Way to make Notre Dame’s only win so far this year completely meaningless.

Is there a more schizophrenic team in the country than the Boilermakers? They’ll probably go on to beat Wisconsin later in the year I’m sure.

To be fair, they did lose Robert Marve again in this game, but I don’t think this is going to be a very good year in West Lafayette.

Ohio State 73

E. Michigan 20

Question: How many games has Eastern Michigan won since 2006?

Answer: 8

And then 105,000 people piled into the Horseshoe to see Ohio State take them on.

Terrelle Pryor finished with 224 yards passing with four touchdowns as well as 104 yards on just seven carries and another score.

I really think we’ll look back at this game and say that this was the turning point in Pryor’s maturation as a Heisman-level quarterback and leader.

Penn State 22

Temple 13

Finally, a semblance of an actual competitive college football game!

This game was probably a little too close for comfort for most Nittany Lion fans, but many of us saw that coming. Temple led at halftime 13-6, but Penn State buckled up their chin straps and enforced their will on their Keystone state little brother.

That’s what happens when you’re 34-0-1 since 1943 against an opponent.

Indiana 35

Akron 20

Indiana quarterback Ben Chappell is on fire this year and is on pace for 3,500 yards, 36 touchdowns, with over 70 percent accuracy and zero interceptions.

Oh, he’s played Towson, Western Kentucky, and Akron? Well why sweat the details, right?

I’m pretty sure that Jim Delany wants to expand his conferences’ footprint on the East Coast so that football fans everywhere can watch this game on the Big Ten Network. I know I would have tuned in.

N. Illinois 34

Minnesota 23

Ugh, Minnesota.

I mean… ugh.

First, the Gophers beat Middle Tennessee State, and then lose to South Dakota. That’s followed up by a valiant effort against USC in another loss, only to be beaten by double digits by a MAC team.

Can we go ahead and pencil Minnesota in with a 2-10 record this year?

If this were NCAA College Football 2011, they’d be asking me, “Would you like to join the Big Ten and replace Minnesota for the 2011 season?”

Of course, I wouldn’t join because I’d be too busy scheduling Miami, Texas, and Oklahoma, just like the real Fighting Irish.

Do better Big Ten members, do better.

From the FanTake blog: One Foot Down

Follow on Twitter: @OneFootDown