State of Embarrassment

After going 11-0 in the opening week, the Big Ten struggled in Week 2. Sure, tOSU showed they deserved the #1 ranking, but elsewhere the conference was embarrassing itself. Penn State was shellacked by Notre Dame, Minnesota felt the wrath of Cal, Iowa beat Syracuse in overtime thanks to some horrendous play calling by the Orange, Purdue had to go to overtime to beat Miami of Ohio at home, and Sparty struggled at home with the mighty Eastern Michigan Hurons Eagles.

But nowhere was the embarrassment more pronounced than in the Land of Lincoln, the state of Illinois. The Illini, whose fans were actually thinking they might get five wins this season, were shut out by Rutgers 33-0. Well at least Rutgers is (barely) Division I-A. Northwestern lost at home to Division I-AA New Hampshire, 34-17.

I know that Rutgers was a bowl team last year, and with an easy Big East slate, probably will be one this year. There's not much shame in losing to Rutgers any more (Sparty, I'm looking at you), but 33-0?

As for New Hampshire, sure they went to the I-AA quarterfinals last year, but Nothwestern is in the Big Ten and was home, coming off an emotional win over Miami of Ohio the previous week. Come on, Northwestern, we're all pulling for you this year, but this was embarassing.

Neither of these fanbases are going to lose sleep over this, though. Illini fans are just counting down until Midnight Madness on October 13 and the Northwestern fans are counting down until the...GMATs?