If you squint and look at the standings in juuust the right light, it’s Western Michigan sitting atop the Big Ten’s West division.
WMU’s win over Northwestern in the season opener gave the MAC a win over a B1G school for a record 11th consecutive season. Two weeks later, P.J. Fleck & Company rowed their boat to another B1G win.
On the strength of Jamauri Bogan‘s 189 yards rushing -- he averaged 7.9 yards per carry -- WMU ran over, through and around a porous Illinois defense for an easy 34-10 win. As a team, the Broncos ran for 281 yards.
WMU’s run defense was their offensive counterpart’s equal, holding the Illini, which has lost to MAC schools three times in the conference’s 11-year streak, to just three yards rushing in 15 attempts.
The win was the Broncos second over the Illini in the five games in which they’ve played. WMU owns a 6-31 record against BiG teams since 1963, although they own a 2-1 advantage over Iowa.