FanHouse BrandonWegher

Every Thursday, Pickin' on the Big Ten runs down the weekend's games from inside a chicken coop, at least as far as you know.

Cue the inevitable anti-Iowa backlash. A team that barely got by Arkansas State and Northern Iowa is somehow No. 1 in the nation according to the computer polls the BCS uses. Don't like it? Line forms to the left. Kirk Ferentz even agrees with you.

Shouldn't the computers' top ranked team have at least some sort of offense? Yes, of course. But whose fault is that No. 1 ranking?

Yours, you loudmouth.

It was a measure of revenge for the Big Ten this afternoon in Iowa City as the Iowa Hawkeyes knocked off the Arizona Wildcats, 27-17.

The Hawkeyes were led by their defense, which held Arizona's powerful rushing attack to 146 yards and kept the nation's No. 2 rusher, Arizona's Nic Grigsby, to just 74 yards on 11 carries. Arizona didn't score an offensive touchdown until 1:55 remained in the fourth quarter and only managed eight first downs all afternoon.

Iowa quarterback Ricky Stanzi started slowly, throwing a first-quarter interception which Arizona's Trevin Wade returned for a touchdown. Stanzi finished 20 of 32 for 205 yards.

Riding a pass defense that kept the field clogged all afternoon long, the Iowa Hawkeyes broke a six-year road jinx with a 35-3 victory over Iowa State at Jack Trice Stadium in Ames.

Six Cyclone turnovers combined with a plethora of other mental errors to doom Paul Rhoads' team. Quarterback Austen Arnaud simply couldn't find his receivers all afternoon long, going 10 for 22 and only racking up 79 yards. The junior from Ames threw four interceptions, with backup Jerome Tiller adding one more and tailback Alexander Robinson fumbling once.

Iowa's offense was far from wonderful in the first half, with quarterback Ricky Stanzi overthrowing receivers or simply heaving the ball towards no one at all. For the Hawkeyes, though, the real story was the emergence of two stars.

Signing day has come and (nearly) gone, filled with celebration and upheaval. Sort of like life. We're here to parse what can be parsed and detail the recruiting classes that were for the major conferences.

While recruiting services Scout and Rivals differ widely in their overall assessments of this year's Big Ten recruiting classes, they're both impressed by many of the same things. Of course, they're also unimpressed by many of the same things.

But hey, you're a smart person. You can figure things out for yourself. You want to know who helped themselves. You want to know who shot themselves in the foot. You want to know if the talent-rich got richer, like Michigan did with defensive end Craig Roh (pictured). Make the jump, grasshopper; all will be revealed.