Fake Big Ten Standings II

Luke Juha and the Penn State defense neutralized Ohio State star Ryan Dzingel just enough to take over first place in the Fake Big Ten. Photo: Steve Manuel/GoPSUSports.com

Even though the Fake Big Ten Standings was initially intended as a lazy throwaway post, the first installment was actually pretty popular, so I'm offering this update, to be followed by others at the end of January and February. Hey, why not?

Just to restate my idiot-repelling caveat, I know that this is in no way legitimate. That's why it's the Fake Big Ten. The major flaw, of course, is the current conference alignment. With three future Big Ten schools in the CCHA, two in the WCHA and independent Penn State, teams generally don't play anything resembling a true Big Ten schedule, or even one that can be compared to other future conference rivals for any reason beyond novelty.

The Fake Big Ten received a nice boost over the weekend when Penn State and Ohio State ended up playing each other at the Three Rivers Classic, while Michigan and Michigan State met in the Great Lakes Invitational (neither matchup was guaranteed going into the tournaments). Because I'm still high on hubris from the Nittany Lions' victory over OSU, let's rank teams by points percentage. Speaking of PSU, I only included NCAA Division I games in the overall mark - it just didn't feel right including wins over the likes of DIII Fredonia for something like this, not when Minnesota is obliterating Boston College in their out-of-conference games.

	Conference				Overall
	W-L-T	Pts.	Pct.	GF-GA	W-L-T	GF-GA
Penn State	1-0-0	2	1.000	5-4	6-8-0	39-45
Minnesota	3-0-1	7	0.875	17-5	13-3-3	69-35
Ohio State	2-1-0	4	0.667	8-6	7-8-5	39-41
Michigan	2-1-0	4	0.667	12-10	7-10-2	55-63
Wisconsin	0-1-1	1	0.250	3-5	4-7-5	35-36
Michigan State	1-6-0	2	0.143	13-28	5-11-3	40-54

Conference Results

October 12: Michigan State 1 at Minnesota 5 [box score]
October 13: Michigan State 1 at Minnesota 7 [box score]
November 9: Michigan State 1 at Michigan 5 [box score]
November 10: Michigan 2 at Michigan State 7 [box score]
November 16: Wisconsin 2 at Minnesota 2 [box score]
November 17: Wisconsin 1 at Minnesota 3 [box score]
November 30: Ohio State 1 at Michigan State 0 [box score]
December 1: Ohio State 3 at Michigan State 1 [box score]
December 29: Penn State 5 vs. Ohio State 4 (Pittsburgh, PA) [box score]
December 30: Michigan State 2 vs. Michigan 5 (Detroit, MI) [box score]

Conference Games Remaining

January 25: Penn State at Michigan State
January 26: Penn State at Michigan State
February 1: Michigan State at Michigan
February 2: Michigan State vs. Michigan (Detroit, MI)
February 15: Minnesota at Wisconsin
February 17: Minnesota vs. Wisconsin (Chicago, IL)
February 22: Michigan at Ohio State
February 23: Michigan at Ohio State
February 24: Penn State at Wisconsin
February 25: Penn State at Wisconsin