(AP) — Oregon has made a splash in its first Big Ten season but the other former Pac-12 teams are finding the transition far more difficult.
UCLA, USC and Washington are all sitting in the bottom half of their new conference’s standings midway through the season and are collectively 4-10 in Big Ten play.
The outlier for the Pac-12-to-Big Ten teams is the Ducks, ranked No. 1 in the nation for the first time since 2012, and boosted by a victory two weeks ago at home over then-No. 2 Ohio State.
No. 20 Illinois (6-1, 3-1) vs No. 1 Oregon (7-0, 4-0)
12:30 p.m. Saturday
Watch it live on KOIN 6
“Entering this conference, there’s some new challenges that are presented. Going through the summer scouting reports, you realize that some of these teams that we are going to get to play, and it’s really exciting. But I’ll tell you here at Oregon, we chase and attack those challenges,” Dan Lanning predicted before the season kicked off.
Oregon (7-0, 4-0) got off to a shaky start in lackluster nonconference wins against Idaho and Boise State that now seem like anomalies. Last weekend on the road the Ducks shutout the Boilermakers 35-0. This week they host No. 20 Illinois.