The Big Ten is in trouble.

Big trouble.

After a dismal week two, which included some not-so signature games, the conference that has been in the bottom half of Sagarin’s BCS conference rankings seems to be spiraling toward mediocracy again.

In Happy Valley, the Penn State offense was a no-show for the second straight year against SEC power Alabama.  While nobody expected the Nittany Lions to actually win the game, few expected them to…well…not score.  But Penn State was almost held without a touchdown for a second straight year, until the oh so resilient Lions pounded in late in the 4th quarter with the game already decided.  Take away: if you have a semi-respectable defense, they won’t score on you.

In Ames, the Iowa Hawkeyes dropped a rivalry game to lowly Big 12 statemate Iowa State.  The Cyclones scored a game-tying touchdown in overtime, then popped in the game winner in triple OT to send the Hawkeyes packing.

The story out of Minneapolis Saturday was Jerry Kill’s late collapse on the field.  Thankfully he’s okay, but now that he’s in stable condition, he is likely reflecting on the Gophers’ home loss to middle-of-the-road WAC opponent New Mexico State.

The Gophers aren’t the only 0-2 team.  Indiana’s doldrums continued Saturday with a 34-31 loss to Virginia in Bloomington.  In-state rival Purdue didn’t fare any better, losing to Conference USA foe Rice in Houston.

Then there’s Ohio State, who followed up a good performance against Akron with a horrendous one against in-state rival Toledo at home.  The Buckeyes needed two botched field goals, 14 penalties in their favor and a special teams touchdown to win by five against the Rockets.  Yes, they have four suspended starters, but it’s clear this isn’t the same team that may as well be penciled into a BCS game before the season begins.

Speaking of near losses against bad teams, Michigan needed a bailout review against a pitiful Notre Dame secondary to beat the Irish by four at home.  And Nebraska didn’t look like itself through three quarters against Fresno State but finally pulled away for a 42-29 home win.

Don’t put any stock into Illinois’ 2-0 start.  The Illini gave up its annual opening game with Missouri after five straight losses to the Tigers and have beaten up on two nobodies.  Ironically, the Illini play Arizona State this Saturday – the team that beat Missouri Friday.

Overall, the conference went 7-5 on Saturday, a terrible record for a non-conference weekend, and some of those wins could have easily been losses.

It will get even more interesting for the conference in week three.  Arizona State visits Illinois, Washington comes to Nebraska, Pitt visits Iowa, Ohio State goes to Miami, Northwestern is at Army, Michigan State visits Notre Dame, Wisconsin plays Northern Illinois and Penn State takes a trip to in-state rival Temple.

Jeff Sagarin, who’s ratings are one of six computers used in the BCS computer formula, computes formulas to rank each conference.  Here are his rankings for the Big Ten the past 11 years, in case anyone is surprised by the Big Ten’s futility in 2011.  There have been at least four conferences better than the Big Ten in nine of the past 11 years.

2000 – 5th
2001 – 5th
2002 – 5th
2003 – 3rd
2004 – 5th
2005 – 1st
2006 – 5th
2007 – 6th
2008 – 6th
2009 – 6th
2010 – 5th
2011 – 5th (through two weeks)