Hoosiers Now

Big Ten Football Week 2 Saturday Watch Grid

There are 12 different Big Ten football teams playing games this Saturday, and HoosiersNow.com has you covered with a watch grid, breaking down which games you definitely need to see, which games are somewhat interesting and which games you shouldn't worry about too much during your weekend.

Daniel Olinger

Big Ten Football Week 2 Saturday Watch Grid
Big Ten Football Week 2 Saturday Watch Grid /
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BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Are you ready for some football?

Indiana already wrapped up its Week 2 action with a 41-7 win over Indiana State, while Illinois lost to Kansas on the road 34-23. Still, there are 12 more Big Ten teams taking the field on Saturday in 12 different non-conference matchups.

Here are the games you 100 percent need to watch, the games that you should definitely keep an eye on and the games where you might want to get out of the house or do some chores. 

Tier 1 — Absolute Bangers, Must-Watch Games

  • Nebraska at Colorado, Noon ET. TV: FOX

What else can be said about this one?

Colorado's 45-42 win over TCU was the story of Week 1, and the Buffaloes Week 2 matchup is against their greatest historic rival in the first ever home game of the Deion Sanders era. 

CU certainly isn't backing down from the hype either, as more than 800 media credentials have been issued for the game at Folsom Field. 

Nebraska, meanwhile, is coming off yet another heartbreaking loss, where the Huskers somehow went from up 10-3 with two minutes remaining, to losing on a buzzer-beating field goal.

No matter what happens in this game, it'll be entertaining. 

Tier 2 — Good Games to Flip to Occasionally 

  • Wisconsin at Washington State, 7:30 p.m. ET. TV: ABC
  • Iowa at Iowa State, 3:30 p.m. ET. TV: FOX
  • Purdue at Virginia Tech, Noon ET. TV: ESPN2
  • Temple at Rutgers, 7:30 p.m. ET. TV: Big Ten Network

Wisconsin and quarterback Tanner Mordecai looked like they were still shaking off some rust in the new-look Badger offense during Week 1. Wisconsin is the expected winner against a Washington State team that's considered rather middling, but that was the case last year too, and that ended in a WSU victory. 

That matchup could certainly get spicy if coordinator Phil Longo's offense comes out of the gates slow.

Every Iowa-Iowa State game ends with at least one team feeling awful, both for the loss and for how brutally ugly the 60 minutes of football was. Matt Campbell finally got his first win over Kirk Ferentz and the Hawkeyes last year in that catastrophically bad 10-7 game. I can't in good faith tell anyone that this game will be good, but I feel confident in saying that it's interesting. 

Even though neither Purdue nor Virginia Tech are particularly good teams in 2023, it's still a Power 5 vs Power 5 matchup. A win for coach Ryan Walters and the Boilermakers would be huge in proving that the Week 1 loss to Fresno State was a fluke, and that they're still perfectly capable of having a quality season. This one is also worth watching because it's a Virginia Tech home game, and the Enter Sandman entrance has never once disappointed. 

Temple at Rutgers just barely crawled into Tier 2 here, mainly because Temple has a good defense that can hang with its Big Ten opponent, and because we still know next to nothing about how good Rutgers is. It tells you how bad of a situation Northwestern is in right now that Temple likely represents a steep jump in opponent quality for coach Greg Schiano and the Scarlet Knights. 

Tier 3 — Games That Are Technically Being Played

  • Youngstown State at Ohio State, Noon ET. TV: Big Ten Network
  • Delaware at Penn State, Noon ET. TV: Peacock
  • UNLV at Michigan, 3:30 p.m. ET. TV: CBS
  • Richmond at Michigan State, 3:30 p.m. ET. TV: Big Ten Network
  • UTEP at Northwestern, 3:30 p.m. ET. TV: Big Ten Network
  • Charlotte at Maryland, 7:30 p.m. ET. TV: NBC, Peacock
  • Eastern Michigan at Minnesota, 7:30 p.m. ET. TV: Big Ten Network

Ohio State, Penn State and Michigan will likely win by a combined 300 points. 

Michigan State might win by a little less, but the Spartans aren't in any danger of losing. 

The most interesting thing about Maryland's game vs Charlotte is the 49ers' head coach — Biff Poggi. If only the rest of us could reach a point in life where two of our five defining traits were "former hedge fund manager" and "loves cookies."

Eastern Michigan at Minnesota is probably the closest game here to a Tier 2 matchup. Eagles' coach Chris Creighton is as good as it gets at that level of the sport, and P.J. Fleck's Gophers looked fairly challenged in their 13-10 victory over Nebraska. Probably worth monitoring this one in case the Minnesota offense looks dead on arrival once more. 

If anyone is willingly watching Northwestern-UTEP without having a connection to either school, they are a bad person. 

Related Stories on Big Ten Football:

  • KANSAS 34, ILLINOIS 23: Coach Bret Bielema and the Illinois Fighting Illini fell to the Kansas Jayhawks 34-23 on Friday night, despite getting an impressive second half performance from quarterback Luke Altmyer. CLICK HERE
  • WEEK 1 BIG TEN POWER RANKINGS: With week 1 of the 2023 college football season in the books, our Daniel Olinger ranked all 14 football teams in the Big Ten on where they currently stand in the conference. CLICK HERE
  • WOULD B1G EVER KICK A TEAM OUT OF CONFERENCE: With Stanford, Cal and SMU joining the ACC in 2024, conference realignment has truly gotten out of hand. With all the movement up into new conferences coming, we ask the question — would the Big Ten ever forcibly remove a team from its own conference? CLICK HERE
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Daniel Olinger
DANIEL OLINGER

Daniel Olinger is a Sports Illustrated/FanNation reporter for HoosiersNow.com. He graduated from Northwestern University with degrees in both journalism and economics. 

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