The Big Ten appears poised to drop further down the college football pecking order when the updated BCSrankings are released on Sunday evening.
According to the latest SB Nation BCS projections, only the Penn State Nittany Lions and Michigan State Spartans should expect to represent the Big Ten among the Top 15 teams in the BCS rankings. The Nebraska Cornhuskers are expected to fall out of the discussion after dropping a home game to a resolute Northwestern Wildcats squad last night. Meanwhile, the Michigan Wolverines' late rally at Iowa came up short which should knock them out of the BCS rankings conversations.
The Minnesota Golden Gophers showed up strong at Michigan State forcing the Spartans to stage a second-half comeback to win and remain among the ranked elite. Minnesota was such a heavy underdog, though that rallying to win won't give the Spartans much of a bump from pollsters.
Penn State actually benefited from not playing yesterday as several top tier Big Ten teams struggled on the field. However, the Nittany Lions had a horrific day off the field yesterday as sex abuse charges against former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky have thrown the program into turmoil. But for now the current Penn State team projects to be ranked 12th when the BCS update is released tonight.