This past weekend of college football was mostly good for the Big Ten, except for the parts that were not very good at all. We're looking at you, Maryland. Oy.
Predictably, the confluence of the SEC getting egg on its collective face (Kyle Koster, USA Today) and Ohio State and Michigan State winning impressively has totally changed the narrative on conference strength, and in some much-too-early prognostication, ESPN has decided the Big Ten is the new SEC or something.
Illinois
We're #1? Two weeks into the season, the conference's most surprising story has to be Illinois sitting pretty at 2-0, and with the #1 scoring defense in the country too.