The path to another Big Ten regular season title doesn't look as clear for the Penn State women's soccer team as it has in the past several years.
This season, it's littered with Buckeyes, Boilermakers, Illini and Spartans.
In fact, it's really hard to say who in the Big Ten does or does not have a legitimate shot at ending Penn State's five-year lock on the conference title.
Then again, maybe Penn State's challengers are just having pipe dreams and the No. 13 Nittany Lions (8-2-2, 2-1 Big Ten) can sit atop their throne for yet another year.
"The Big Ten is very wide open right now," Penn State women's soccer coach Paula Wilkins said.
"Every team has a chance to beat each other and they are playing with that kind of intensity."
Last week the Lions controlled the entire match against Iowa and the 4-0 victory seemed to reflect preseason predictions for Penn State's perpetual authority in the Big Ten. But this past weekend, as they traveled to the Hoosier State to face Purdue and Indiana, things got sketchy.
The No. 24 Boilermakers showed that they weren't ready to succumb to the Big Ten juggernaut and knocked off the Lions by a score of 3-1 in just under 75 minutes, before the
game was called off due to lightning.
Apparently, the upset didn't sit too well with the Lions, though, because they bounced back to beat the Hoosiers by a goal on Sunday.
But the Big Ten is far from being defined so early in the season.
On the same weekend that Purdue beat Penn State, the Boilermakers fell to No. 11 Ohio State. At face value, the 2-1 loss gives the impression that a superior Buckeyes team accordingly beat lower-ranked Purdue. That might be the case, except the Buckeyes also endured a loss on Friday, when they were dealt an unexpected defeat by Indiana.
Consequently, several top conference contenders traded wins and losses, and none have proven that they are above the rest.
"I think that every Big Ten team is going to present a problem and be very competitive," Wilkins said.
Her analysis is currently confirmed by the reordered conference rankings that no longer resemble anything predicted in the preseason.
