With five games to go Purdue is in first place in the Big Ten. After losing to Iowa and Nebraska it didn’t feel like this would happen, but Purdue has done what it needed to do. It got road wins in its three toughest road games at Michigan State, Maryland, and Indiana. It got help from Northwestern winning in Madison, Penn State upsetting Maryland in State College, and Michigan beating Wisconsin last night. Strangely, Nebraska is the great equalizer among the three conference contenders, beating two of them and losing to the third by a point in overtime.
After fighting hard to get back into the race and getting the help needed from the rest of the league the math is now simple: win the next five games and a 23rd Big Ten Championship banner will go up in the offseason.