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Big Ten Power Rankings: Which Big Ten teams have received early Christmas presents?

The Big Ten Power Rankings take a look at which Big Ten teams are in the best shape heading into the holiday break
Benjamin Worgull|
Dec 10, 2025; Lincoln, Nebraska, USA; Wisconsin Badgers head coach Greg Gard sits during a timeout in the first half against the Nebraska Cornhuskers at Pinnacle Bank Arena.
Dec 10, 2025; Lincoln, Nebraska, USA; Wisconsin Badgers head coach Greg Gard sits during a timeout in the first half against the Nebraska Cornhuskers at Pinnacle Bank Arena. | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

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With one week until Christmas, some Big Ten schools have already given themselves some early presents.

Michigan sits No.1 in the NET rankings, while next-door-neighbor rival Michigan State has spoiled itself with four Quad-1 wins. Purdue has spread the wealth around with four players averaging at least 12 points while Nebraska just continues to add win after win.

Other schools are still shopping. Illinois is looking for consistency, Wisconsin and UCLA are both searching for that perfect defensive identity, while USC is looking for another secondary scorer and Penn State is looking for any quality win.

Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, and Minnesota believe Christmas came early with the right head coach to lead its respective program, although each gift has plenty of assembly required, while Washington received a veteran transfer point guard and a hot-shooting freshman that have made them competitive.

As for the others, well, there's still a few shopping days left to get what they need before conference play resumes in January.

Here is the week seven of the Big Ten Power Rankings.

1, Michigan Wolverines (10-0, 2-0) Previous: 1

The Wolverines trailed at halftime Saturday for the first time in nearly a month. It didn't last long. Michigan erased a five-point deficit by scoring 100 points for the fourth time in five games in an 18-point victory at Maryland.

Yaxel Lendeborg had 29 points, a career-best nine assists and eight rebounds and center Aday Mara had 18 points, taking advantage of the Terrapins' lack of size inside.

Michigan doesn't play a KenPom Top 30 team until January 20.

Up Next: Sunday vs. La Salle

2, Michigan State Spartans (10-1, 2-0) Previous: 2

The Spartans gave head coach Tom Izzo a $1 million pay boost in his five-year contract last Friday, making him the highest-paid coach in the Big Ten with a salary of about $7.2 million. His team celebrated him by nearly giving him a heart attack a day later in a 76-72 win at Penn State, the school's smallest regular-season victory as a ranked team against an unranked team since 2022.

Call it divine intervention, or just Divine Ugochukwu. Michigan State's sophomore guard had scored over six points once on the season but his career-high 23 points helped the Spartans overcome a sloppy 17-turnover performance and 6-for-18 on layups. His clutch three-pointer with 55 seconds left made it a five-point game and his two free throws with eight seconds left was the final nail in Penn State's coffin.

The Spartans were much better on Tuesday, as Jaxon Kohler's sixth double-double of the season (16 points and 13 rebounds) gave them a wire-to-wire win over Toledo.

Up Next: Saturday vs. Oakland

3, Purdue Boilermakers (10-1, 2-0) Previous: 3

Oscar Cluff made all nine of his shots and finished with a season-high 22 points and 11 rebounds, and Braden Smith had seven points, five rebounds, and 10 assists in a 20-point pummeling of Marquette.

Smith became the second Division I men's basketball player to join the 1,500-point, 850-assist, 550-rebound club. D.J. Cooper was the first to do it during his career at Ohio from 2009-13.

Purdue has won 11 straight games against unranked opponents, its longest such winning streak in three seasons.

Up next: Saturday vs. No.21 Auburn in Indianapolis

4, Nebraska Cornhuskers (11-0, 2-0) Previous: 5

It's time to take the Huskers seriously after a rivalry rout, a Big Ten rout, and a buzzer-beating ranked road win.

Fresh off the momentum it built by blasting Wisconsin by 30, the Huskers hung 83 points on 13th-ranked Illini, shooting 51.6 percent from the field and 46.2 percent from three. Forward Pryce Sandfort single-handedly carried Nebraska with 26 of his 32 points, while the Huskers were more balanced in the second half. Nebraska only trailed for 16 seconds, but Jamarques Lawrence sealed the three-point win with his three-pointer with 0.2 on the clock.

Getting its first win in a ranked matchup since March 1991, Nebraska is now 5-0 in Quad 1 and Quad 2. and

Up Next: Sunday vs. North Dakota

5, Illinois Fighting Illini (8-3, 1-1) Previous: 4

After appearing to turn a defensive corner in holding two ranked opponents to 75 points or less, Illinois gave up at least 80 in consecutive games and are ranked 40th in adjusted defensive efficiency and are ranked 362nd in defensive turnover rate.

Illinois' frontcourt also failed to match the strength of Nebraska's forwards. Tomislav Ivisic attempted only three shots in 29 minutes and David Mirkovic was benched for the final 11:38 after struggling mightily on both ends of the floor.

All three of Illinois' losses have come against ranked opponents.

Up Next: Monday vs. Missouri in St. Louis

6, USC Trojans (11-1, 1-1) Previous: 6

The Trojans struggled to put away Washington State in large part because Chad Baker-Mazara was just 4-for-11 from the floor and 0-for-5 from three. He still scored 19 points because he was 11 of 11 from the free-throw line and had six rebounds, five assists and two blocks.

He was much better on Wednesday, combining with Ezra Ausar and Chad Baker-Mazara to score 42 points in a 27-point win.

USC is going to need all the offense it can get moving forward. The Trojans announced that Rodney Rice (20.3 ppg) will miss the remainder of the season with a right shoulder injury.

Up Next: Sunday vs. UC Santa Cruz

7, UCLA Bruins (9-3, 2-0) Previous: 7

It was a mixed week for the Bruins. UCLA missed a second chance at a quality win when it loss by 10 to Gonzaga in Seattle, letting another game slip away late in the second half, but rebounded for a quality home win over a good Arizona State team. Donovan Dent had 20 points and Skyy Clark and Tyler Bilodeau both scored 18, as the Bruins went 14-for-26 from three and 18-for-22 from the line.

It's kind of been the story of the Bruins season thus far: mixed.

Up Next: Friday vs. Cal Poly

8, Ohio State Buckeyes (8-2, 1-1), Previous: 9

Bruce Thornton scored 19 of his 21 points after halftime, which included the go-ahead jumper with 3.6 seconds left. However, the big reason Ohio State rallied from a 14-point second-half deficit to beat West Virginia 89-88 in double overtime and didn't suffer a defeat like it did to Illinois four days prior, was Thornton had help.

Freshman Amare Bynum started the second half and scored 15 of his season-high 17 points after halftime, John Mobley Jr. scored 17 and Christoph Tilly had 14 points and 11 rebounds. That balance makes the Buckeyes a tough team to compete with.

Up Next: Saturday vs. No.12 North Carolina in Atlanta

9, Wisconsin Badgers (7-3, 1-1) Previous: 8

The Badgers have a full eight days off between games for final exams, which should give them plenty of time to fix their failing defense. UW has given up 82.3 points against power-conference opponents and are ranked 251st nationally in field goal percentage defense and 287th in three-point percentage defense. In Wisconsin's two Quad-1 games this season (vs. BYU on Nov.21 and Wednesday at Nebraska), the Badgers have given up 94 points. Up next? Another Quad-1 game.

Up Next: Friday vs. Villanova in Milwaukee

10, Iowa Hawkeyes (9-2, 1-1) Previous: 11

Iowa crushing Western Michigan by 40 wasn't as impressive a the Hawkeyes' 66-62 road loss at No.4 Iowa State, a team that had just blasted No.1 Purdue in West Lafayette. The Hawkeyes led by eight at the break after shooting 64 percent from the floor and holding the Cyclones to their fewest first-half points all season. However, going scoreless for more than six minutes at the start of the second half and getting only 10 points from leading-scorer Bennett Stirtz led to the unraveling.

Still, the Hawkeyes showed they are more than just offense after holding the nation's leading field goal percentage team to 42 percent from the floor. In its win over Western Michigan, the Hawkeyes led the Broncos 52-16 at halftime and led by as many as 50 in the second half.

Up Next: Saturday vs. Bucknell

11, Indiana Hoosiers (8-3, 1-1) Previous 9

The Hoosiers have been unable to figure out how to win when the three-point shot doesn't fall. Indiana is 5-0 when shooting better than 33.3 percent from three and 3-3 when shooting below that mark, with only one win in the latter category coming against a power-conference school (Kansas State).

It also didn't help that the Hoosiers' lack of size resulted in 14 offensive rebounds for Kentucky and lax ball security causing 18 Indiana turnovers in a 72-60 loss.

Up Next: Saturday vs. Chicago State

12, Washington Huskies (7-3, 1-1) Previous: 12

The Huskies got to relax after their big comeback win over USC by thorough dismantling Southern Utah by 36. Hannes Steinbach continues building his strong candidacy for Big Ten Freshman of the Year with 14 points (7-for-9) and is averaging 17.9 points and 11.9 rebounds per game.

Up Next: Friday at Seattle U.

13, Northwestern Wildcats (7-4, 0-2) Previous: 13

After four losses in five games against power-conference competition, Northwestern got unleash some frustrations against Jackson State and Valparaiso with two wins by a combined 56 points. Nick Martinelli did a lot of the swinging with 22 against Jackson State and 29 against the Crusaders.

Up Next: Saturday vs. Butler in Indianapolis

14, Oregon Ducks (6-5, 0-2) Previous: 14

Much like Northwestern, the last week was cathartic for the Ducks. Losing five straight, Oregon hung 104 on UC Davis and 96 on Portland. It's the first time since 2018 the Ducks scored over 90 in consecutive games. Too bad they can't carry over some of that offense into the weekend.

Up Next: Saturday vs No.7 in Portland, Ore.

15, Maryland Terrapins (6-5, 0-2) Previous: 15

The Terps finally being at full strength didn't last long. Maryland lost center Pharrell Payne - its leading scorer at 18.7 points per game - to a leg injury late in the first half and saw forward Solomon Washington get ejected after he picked up his second technical foul early in the second half. That allowed the Wolverines to score 44 points in the paint.

David Coit tried to pick up the slack with 31 points on 20 shots, but the Terps have lost four of five.

Up Next: Saturday at No.23 Virginia

16, Penn State Nittany Lions (8-3, 0-2) Previous: 16

The Nittany Lions had the Spartans on the ropes, leading by as many as nine in the first half and then by three with five minutes left. It was the perfect response after getting blown out by Indiana, 113-72, four days early.

Freddie Dilione scored a career-high 22 points, Kayden Mingo added 11 and Ivan Juric had 10 for the Nittany Lions, who are still searching for a win outside Quad-4.

Up Next: Saturday vs. Pittsburgh in Hersey, PA

17, Minnesota Gophers (6-5, 1-1): Previous: 17

Cade Tyson will do himself well if he pictures every opponent as Texas Southern. The well-traveled guard scored a career-high 38 points, including 23 in the first half, as Minnesota routed Texas Southern, 89-53. Tyson made a career-high eight 3-pointers and grabbed 11 rebounds. He made 11 of 19 field goals overall, 8 of 12 3-pointers and 8 of 11 free throws. At 22.6 points per game, he leads the conference in scoring.

The Gophers assisted on 27 of their 28 baskets against Texas Southern, a 96.4 assist percentage that is the highest in a game by any Big Ten team this century.

Up Next: Sunday vs. Campbell

18, Rutgers Scarlet Knights (5-6, 0-2): Previous: 18

Harun Zrno scored 15 points on four three-pointers to lead Rutgers but the Scarlet Knights shot just 27.3 percent in the first half, as Seton Hall capitalized on turnovers and second-chance opportunities to build a double-digit cushion it held for the majority of its rivalry game.

Rutgers forced 15 turnovers and scored 19 second-chance points, but was unable to slow Seton Hall's shooting efficiency, as the Pirates - rated No.111 in adjusted offensive efficiency - finished the game at 54.8 percent from the field.

Up Next: Saturday vs. Penn

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Benjamin Worgull
BENJAMIN WORGULL

Benjamin Worgull has covered Wisconsin men's basketball since 2004, having previously written for Rivals, USA Today, 247sports, Fox Sports, the Associated Press, the Janesville Gazette, and the Wisconsin State Journal.

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