The rankings seem pretty spot on.

As for "so much for the Big 10 being down this year," there's a big gap between IU-MSU-Wisco and the next team. Who even is the next team? Minny? Purdue? OSU? That gap will facilitate three highly ranked teams from the Big 10 staying highly ranked.

We are 7 in the AP, they just realeased it...

Even though IU has yet to prove itself with a signature win...I think we're probably a Top 10 team. I still worry that the higher we climb, the harder we fall. We keep climbing because other teams keep losing. However, we're winning the games we should win, no matter how ugly.

There really are not any other teams capable of competing for the Big Ten title...just based on the feeling that MSU, Wisc and Indiana are the only 3 capable of making a run at the Final Four.

Then you have Purdue, Ohio State, Minnesota and even Illinois that worry me more than any other teams.

Then the Bottom Four of Penn State, Iowa, Michigan, and Northwestern should not provide any problems to the top 3 teams....even though Iowa beat Michigan State and IU struggled there as well.

Lunardi of ESPN has finally included Purdue in the NCAA tournament, along with OSU. I would think the Purdue, based on the victory over OSU is the No. 4 in the conference, followed by 5. OSU 6. Minnesota 7. Illinois 8. Penn State 9. Iowa 10. Michigan 11 . Northwestern

I think the Big Ten is still "down", despite those three teams being ranked so highly. Depth in the conference is just awful this year, even worse than usual. But I think IU, MSU, and Wisconsin are all legit. It just doesn't stretch any deeper than that; that's a bad conference.

I think the Big Ten has settled into three distinct tiers:

1. Contenders - IU, MSU, Wisconsin
2. Tournament/bubble teams - Ohio State, Purdue, Minnesota (although with two home losses this is a little tougher)
3. Bottom feeders - Michigan, Iowa, Penn State, Northwestern, Illinois

The Big 10 is down for two reasons. First, the bottom of the conference is awful. Second, the 4th and 5th place teams, who should be gunning for top-half NCAA seeds are young teams that are prone to ups and downs. Considering the growing pains and maturation process, I think we're headed for yet another season where the Big 10 is down for the whole year until tourney time, when the top teams will go on runs and Purdue and OSU will surprise.

IU is probably pretty close to the right ranking.

Top 10 yes, but at this point even as an IU homer, I don't know if I can say top 5.

I saw in the AP that they're ahead of UCLA and a week ago everyone was saying UCLA is pretty much guaranteed to be one of the #1 seeds.

I think we should be ranked higher than UCLA, other than that i think they got it right

I think we are just about right...maybe if we got put at #7 ahead of UCLA, but i can live with 8. If we can learn from the mistakes we made the LAST time we played Iowa and put on a convincing win, on top of taking down UConn I think we are in good shape. The biggest game of the year thus far is the roadie to Wisconsin coming up. We need to get all the bugs worked out of our system here at home and translate that into that game...going to be a lot of eyes on that matchup and we have a lot to prove but a lot more to lose.

I'm surprised that Butler didn't drop further. Just goes to show that mid-major programs are getting a lot more respect in this day and age. A few years ago and a two loss mid major program at this time of the year is maybe in the Top 20, but probably not any higher.

But at the same time, mid-majors still get the bonus if they knock off BCS teams. If Butler was to beat IU, it would not be looked at like #7 vs. #14. It would be big mighty IU vs. little tiny Butler. That's what's wrong with the system. Mid-majors get the bonus on both sides.

they shouldnt be ranked any lower because however closely they are winning, they are still winning. they shouldnt be any higher until they knock off connecticut and wisconsin (on the road)...then they better rise for sure! the next two weeks are huge for iu to prove themselves deserving of a top ten rank and a legitimate contender for big ten and national titles.