BTN Power Rankings: Penn State makes move in Power Rankings (Minnesota #10)

per the BTN:

10. Minnesota (6-2). Next seven games are at home and should help Mo Walker find his rhythm. Florida State will be really good gauge for these evolving Gophers.
Last week: 8

http://btn.com/2013/12/03/bardo-penn-state-climbs-up-power-rankings/

Go Gophers!!

Purdue has looked awful, but so did the Gophers in Maui so you can't really argue with the rankings. 8-11 is a toss up right now. I think Northwestern is easily the worst team right now.

Gold Vision said:

Purdue has looked awful, but so did the Gophers in Maui so you can't really argue with the rankings. 8-11 is a toss up right now. I think Northwestern is easily the worst team right now.

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The Gophers looked awful in two of the six halves in Maui. They looked pretty decent the rest of the time. It's important to be realistic about what this team is rather than look for reasons to denigrate or overrate them.

Although not yet statistically stable, the Sagarin model is starting to solidify. It has the Gophers at No. 42, seventh best in the Big Ten. Not sure what the RPI looks like, but just playing a team like Syracuse has helped greatly with strength of schedule. If they beat Florida State, that puts them in decent shape to play out the non-con and continue to improve as a team. Even a loss to FSU (No. 16 in Sagarin) would not be fatal, although that would leave them with no quality wins and a lot of work to do going forward.

I don't think the coaches and players are giving up the season yet, so I'm going to choose not to either. It's still pretty early.

Early RPI numbers not good

Bad Gopher said:

. ... It has the Gophers at No. 42, seventh best in the Big Ten. Not sure what the RPI looks like. ..., but just playing a team like Syracuse has helped greatly with strength of schedule. ...

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Early RPI numbers are not kind. Gophers are #116. Still too early to be concerned (see Louisville #124 in RPI, Michigan #131), but a loss tonight and there's not much help coming (if any) the rest of the non-Big Ten slate.

Current Big Ten RPIs
5. Wisconsin
8. Michigan State
12. Ohio State
18. Illinois
44. Indiana
58. Iowa
107. Penn State
116. GOPHERS
131. Michigan
165. Nebraska
187. Northwestern
209. Purdue

Obviously, looking at that RPI list Michigan is by far the most underperforming B1G team. #131 when they were a preseason top-10 team, many people (foolishly) picked them #2 in the B1G. Certainly they are not living up to expectations thus far. I suppose PSU is the one team that is overperforming compared to expectations. Illinois is probably as high now as they are ever going to be this year.