The sky wasn't falling after the ASU loss. The gap between Ohio State and the rest of the East is big, and MSU's remaining schedule is prohibitively difficult, so I don't think they're a B1G title challenger. I do, however, really like their chances of scoring a road upset over either tOSU or Wisconsin.

5/5 in Tier E: My computer continues to love the Spartans. Rebounded for a nice win over Northwestern, but I'm not sure I'd even rank them if I was doing a human poll. This is as low as my hybrid system will let me put them.

(69 + 12 -> 81; 50 -> 23) Look, you try finding someone that deserves a number by their name on TV. Maybe the Arizona State thing was a fluke. Maybe not. I'm only using my model's top 60, so I couldn't even stretch for UCF or Tulane or some other high-performance G5 to fill the space. Maybe someone else will do something rank-worthy next week. (NEW)

Will MSU be the team we all know they can be from here on?

The Spartans return to the poll after taking care of Northwestern on Saturday.