Jerry Lai – USA Today Sports

Anyone who follows college football knows that the Big Ten has a reputation for being a weak conference. The BCS computers think that the Big Ten is at the level of the Big 12 and the ACC, but in reality it is one of the weakest, if not the weakest, of the power conferences.

The weakness of the Big Ten is not going to do the Ohio State Buckeyes any favors. They are the only remaining team in the Big Ten that is undefeated going into Week 8 of the college football season. The Michigan Wolverines were also undefeated going into Week 7, but they were upset by the Penn State Nittany Lions on Saturday.

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The Buckeyes’ schedule has become weaker with the Michigan loss. Playing ranked teams in the Wisconsin Badgers and Northwestern Wildcats earlier this season helped their strength of schedule, but now both teams have two losses, though Wisconsin is still ranked in the AP Top 25 at No. 25. Ohio State doesn’t play any additional ranked teams the rest of the season, unless Michigan finds its way back into the rankings. In fact, Ohio State and Wisconsin are the only Big Ten teams ranked in the AP Top 25 right now, which is even more proof that the Big Ten is weak.

The SEC currently has eight teams in the AP Top 25; the Pac-12, Big 12, and the ACC each have four ranked teams.

The fact that Ohio State is in the Big Ten does not really give them a chance to impress anyone the rest of the season, especially pollsters, with big wins over ranked teams. Teams in other conferences have better chances to do this because they are in stronger conferences and have more ranked teams within the conference.

It has been mentioned that there is a slight possibility of a one-loss SEC team jumping an undefeated Ohio State team in the polls. We’ll just have to wait and see how the rest of the season goes.

It really is too bad for Ohio State that things don’t seem to work in their favor. It can be hard to tell how good they really are because they go through the season not being challenged much. Once they get to the end of the season and play a team from another conference that challenges them, they get run all over and don’t even have a chance.

Ohio State will just have to hope the wins they do get the rest of the season are enough to impress the pollsters and put the Buckeyes where they deserve to be at the end of the season.

Jenna Aquino is a Big Ten Football writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow her on Twitter, “Like” her on Facebook, or add her to your network on Google.