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Michigan 29, Minnesota 6. Penn State beat Michigan and doesn't play Minnesota, so assuming they take care of business this afternoon at Iowa, the Lions will slightly benefit in the computer models from the Wolverines' first signs of life in a month. The margins in the BCS being what they are, every hundredth of a point is a big one.

The Gophers' second straight home loss is a devastating "psychic toll" for the Big Ten as a whole, though, and Penn State could pay for it by association in the human polls. With the relative implosions of Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin, the Big Ten's reputation hinges in large part on convincing people that Minnesota and Northwestern -- each of which came into today unranked, but with alluring 7-2 records -- are actually good, respectable teams, worthy of their marks in a conference worthy of putting its champion in the BCS title game. Maybe it's semantic. Maybe winning the Little Brown Jug is the first sign that Michigan is coming alive for a stretch run that will lay the foundation for a revival in '09. Maybe that explains by far the Wolverines' best win and best offensive output of the season, behind a former walk-on quarterback previously known in some Michigan circles as "Death."

Or maybe, off a convincing beating at the hands of the most sputtering, lame-duck outfit in the Big Ten, we can say with a pretty high degree of certainty that, no, Minnesota is still not far removed from the absolute dregs, and its status in the top half of the league is just more awful PR. At the same time, Illinois, a rising program a season removed from the Rose Bowl, falls to 5-5 and possibly no bowl after losing to obscure (not bad, at 8-2 now, but obscure) Western Michigan. Maybe that's why Ohio State was still throwing deep for touchdowns with the game well in hand against the Gophers' partner in surprise, Northwestern: For Penn State's sake, this conference has to have somebody it can hang its hat on, and at the moment, the Buckeyes are it.