The Wolverine

AROUND THE BIG TEN Taking Stock Of The Conference Race And The Best Players With League Play Set To Begin T other BCS conferences and Notre Dame. Although that does not lend to a favorable national view of the conference, it leads to an intriguing and wide-open race to the league championship game in Indianapolis. Neither division boasts a clear favorite, with the Leaders Division occupied by two programs — Penn State and Ohio State — that are ineli- gible due to NCAA sanctions. Plenty can, and will, change over the course of the conference schedule, but here is an early look at power rankings in the two divisions heading into the games that truly matter. he Big Ten has had one of its worst non-conference sea- sons in recent memory, go- ing 6-9 against teams from BY KEVIN MINOR 1. Ohio State (4-0): Under first-year boss Urban Meyer, sophomore quar- terback Braxton Miller is on the cusp of becoming a legitimate superstar. Heading into league play, he was sec- ond in the conference in rushing (441 yards) and had accounted for 14 total scores. Still, the undefeated Scarlet and Gray are young at key positions and in the first year learning a new system, leading to inconsistent perfor- mances in close victories over inferior teams such as Central Florida (31-16) and UAB (29-15). OSU's Nov. 24 home matchup against rival Michigan re- mains the Buckeyes' biggest game. 2. Purdue (2-1): The Boilermakers LEADERS DIVISION Nebraska junior quarterback Taylor Martinez directs a Cornhuskers attack that paced the conference in both scoring offense (48.5 points per game) and total offense (541.8 yards per game) after four contests. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL 40 THE WOLVERINE OCTOBER 2012 largely flew under the radar head- ing into the year, but appear to be a legitimate threat to reach the Big Ten title game after a strong non- conference performance. Entering the final weekend of September, Pur- due ranked second in the conference in both scoring offense (39.7 points per game) and scoring defense (14.0 points allowed per game), and PU possesses a plethora of talented and experienced leaders, including fifth- year senior quarterback Caleb Ter- Bush and fifth-year senior defensive tackle Kawann Short. 3. Wisconsin (3-1): The favorite to win the division heading into the year, the Badgers have been shock- ingly stagnant on offense. Through four weeks, the Badgers ranked dead last in the conference with only 312.8 yards per game. Junior trans- fer quarterback Danny O'Brien has

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