Michigan State loss makes Big Ten race more chaotic

By: Matt Hayes (SportingNews.com) — Take a moment to breathe this in: Previously unbeaten Michigan State, utterly exposed in a rout of a loss at Iowa, is a lock for 11 wins and a piece of its first Big Ten championship in two decades.

Forget what that means about the Big Ten, and understand that the best championship race in college football is in the storied league’s last season without a championship game.

Four teams—Michigan State, Wisconsin, Iowa and Ohio State—could all win the championship, or it could be shared any number of ways. At this point, with a month remaining in the season, we can’t count out surging Illinois, which came into the season three months from finding a replacement for embattled coach Ron Zook.

So in the spirit of a classic Zookism, we give you the “noise in the system.”

* Wisconsin, the highest-ranked league team in the BCS, has road games remaining against Purdue and Michigan, and home games against Indiana and Northwestern.

* Ohio State, a close loss at Wisconsin away from an unbeaten season, is playing Saturday night at Minnesota. The Buckeyes also have a road game at Iowa and home games against Penn State and Michigan.

* Iowa, if it gets a Wisconsin loss (not gonna happen), can win the league outright by winning out with a home game against Ohio State and three roadies against Indiana, Northwestern and Minnesota.

* Michigan State, which dropped from the league’s top team to likely fourth-best, has home games against Minnesota and Purdue and a road game against Penn State. Yet all the Spartans have to do is win out against three overmatched teams to earn a piece of the conference championship.

But that still wouldn’t guarantee Michigan State a spot in a BCS bowl—especially if……

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