Big Ten Week 5 staff predictions
With the start of October comes our first full slate of Big Ten conference action. No more non-conference matchups to add to the mix this week as every team in the Big Ten is facing conference competition this weekend. And there are some good games to keep a close eye on this week with Michigan heading to Iowa, Brett Bielema’s return to Wisconsin, and Michigan State looking to snap a losing streak on the road against a Maryland team that gave the Wolverines a tough time last weekend.
Unfortunately, we did not have Big Ten staff picks to share last week, so call it a clean slate for everyone. But this is a new month, and Kevin and Sam are looking to close the gap with Andrew as we go through the second month of the college football season.
All games are scheduled for Saturday, October 1, 2022. All times are Eastern.
Michigan at Iowa
Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
12:00 p.m., FOX
Andrew: Michigan
Kevin: Michigan
Sam: Michigan
Purdue at Minnesota
Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports
12:00 p.m., ESPN2
Andrew: Minnesota
Kevin: Minnesota
Sam: Minnesota
Illinois at Wisconsin
Ron Johnson-USA TODAY Sports
12:00 p.m., Big Ten Network
Andrew: Wisconsin
Kevin: Wisconsin
Sam: Illinois
Rutgers at Ohio State
Joseph Maiorana-USA TODAY Sports
3:30 p.m., Big Ten Network
Andrew: Ohio State
Kevin: Ohio State
Sam: Ohio State
Northwestern at Penn State
Scott Taetsch/Getty Images
3:30 p.m., ESPN
See our staff predictions and expanded thoughts on Penn State’s matchup with Northwestern here!
Michigan State at Maryland
Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports
3:30 p.m., FS1
Andrew: Maryland
Kevin: Maryland
Sam: Maryland
Sam says: Michigan State is having a down year this season. I mean, it kind of makes sense. You lost the most crucial part of your offense in Kenneth Walker. I’m not high on Maryland, but they are coming off an impressive battle with Michigan. Michigan State also lost to Washington and Minnesota, both who were unranked at the time. I think Maryland has more momentum going their way right now than Michigan State.
Andrew says: It appears the honeymoon is over for Mel Tucker and his Spartans. Kenneth Walker isn’t walking back into the locker room and now they are scrambling for more offense. I don’t see them finding it but the Maryland offense is looking for revenge and I think they find it against a scrambling Spartans squad.
Indiana at Nebraska
Kareem Elgazzar/Cincinnati Enquirer via USA TODAY NETWORK
7:30 p.m., Big Ten Network
Andrew: Nebraska
Kevin: Indiana
Sam: Indiana
Season Records
Andrew 28-8
Kevin 27-9
Sam 25-11
It has been a couple of weeks but there were some interesting results from our last batch of staff picks two weeks ago. The entire staff whiffed on Northwestern’s home game against Southern Illinois and Purdue’s road game at Syracuse. And while Andrew was the only one to pick Washignton to beat Michigan State, he also picked Indiana to lose to Western Kentucky to break even on his lone wolf picks.
Kevin picked up a game by being the only one to trust Iowa to find a way to stumble to a win against Nevada. It took until close to 3 AM Sunday morning to see the final seconds tick off in the weather-delayed night game, but it was worth the wait.
