Big Ten football power rankings after Week 12: Oregon sleepwalks to Big Ten title game

The top of the Big Ten hasn’t been shaken up in weeks. Ohio State, Oregon, Indiana, and Penn State have clearly separated themselves from the rest of the pack, but in Week 12, Wisconsin nearly turned the whole conference on its head. 

Dan Lanning’s Oregon Ducks headed to Madison, Wisconsin in Week 12 with a chance to clinch a spot in the Big Ten championship game before their final regular season game against Washington. All the Ducks had to do was beat Wisconsin, a team that has gotten killed by every good team in the conference and beaten every bad team it's played. Yet, Oregon couldn’t put them away. Lanning went for a fake field goal up 16-13 in the final minutes and failed to convert the first down, but his defense bailed him out with a clinching turnover. 

Oregon doesn’t drop in this week’s power rankings. I’ve already had the Ducks at No. 2 behind Ohio State, despite their head-to-head win over the Buckeyes, and sleepwalking through this game doesn’t change how I feel about them. The most important takeaway though, was Dillon Gabriel’s red zone interception. It was his fifth interception of the season and fourth inside the opponent’s 20-yard line. Gabriel doesn’t have the arm strength to cover up any mistakes or late decisions when the windows get tight around the goalline and on an Oregon team without many flaws, that may be the biggest one. 

The rest of the league continues to cannibalize itself, but crucial Illinois scored a big 38-16 win over Michigan State. Bret Bielema’s Fighting Illini have fallen out of the Top 25 picture with back-to-back losses to Oregon and Minnesota, but they’re still the best shot for the Big Ten to have a fifth team in this week’s College Football Playoff rankings. 

While Illinois could help the entire league by winning a few more games, the Illini will help Penn State the most. The Nittany Lions could finish 11-1 without a win over a team that finishes the year ranked. That’s good enough for a top-12 spot, but might not help James Franklin’s argument for a home game in the first round.