Big Ten Takes 3 Gut Punches in Week 2 Upsets

Here's the bitch about Power Five privilege:

It isn't deserved.

What's more, everyone knows it but only the privileged won't admit it.

The only distinguishing feature for most of those conference members is the mega-dosh they receive for the right to get the snot knocked outta them each season by their clique's particular super-teams.

 

Take the Big Ten, for example.

It seems like every damn week of non-con action, one or more of their squiggy middle is getting poked by one of the great unwashed.

 

Here's mighty Michigan State -- occasional conqueror of heated rivals Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State -- doing the WTF thing in the desert, where Herm Edwards has taught the Sun Devils to play to win the game.

Rumor has it that's what they do in the NFL.

 

It definitely looked like a Week 2 game, but the Devils did, 16-13:

 

Keep in mind Arizona State was a popular prediction to finish in the Pac-12 South's cellar. By the power of Sparty, Michigan State had that big-brand bump and began 2018 in the Top 25.

Reputation over reality. What's new in college football?

 

OK, freshmen.

That'd also apply to Northwestern, who got Dookied in their own house, 21-7.

It's clear from their first drive and nothing afterward that the Wildcats suffered from premature exclamation:

 

The 'Cats did beat Purdue in Week 1, but apparently, wouldn't anybody?

Even that Mid-American Conference stalwart -- 5-7 last year -- Eastern Michigan.

20-19 on the road sounded about right for the Eagles, who apparently misunderstood what the guaranteed-win check they got from the Boilermakers was supposted to mean:

 

For the record, the Eagles topped Big Ten outpost Rutgers last season, which ran their record against Power Five opponents to 1-38.

Dudes are clearly on a roll.

Which is more than can be said for some of these teams to whom the Power Five powers don't have to write buy-a-win checks in order to boost their records.

 

Let that serve as a reminder that a four-team playoff sucks.