The first two months of the college football season are in the books and the next month will determine everything, in the Big Ten and beyond.

Purdue basketball fell short of its Big Ten championship expectations last season but still made a Sweet Sixteen run behind its stars. Braden Smith and Trey Kaufman-Renn return and were picked by the USA TODAY Network to be first team all-Big Ten.

Our newest MLive college football writer has wasted little time making his mark in the Big Ten picks. Jacob Richman went a scorching 12-1 last week against the spread and leads our competition through two weeks, though Aaron McMann is just one game behind ...

There’s no trophy on the line here, just the potential to put the Spartans’ metaphorical backs up against the bowl-berth wall: Lose here, and Smith and MSU will need wins in their final three — Penn State, Iowa and Maryland (in Detroit, no less) — to return to a bowl for the first time since 2021.