Purdue is improved, despite its sub-500 record.
Minnesota is better this year.
Nebraska is better than last year.
Northwestern is better than last year.
Wisconsin is much better than last year.
Only Illinois appears to have regressed, but of course that game is on the road.
Everyone thinking the second half of the season will be a tiptoe through the tulips is either drunk, delusional, or being willfully ignorant of our history.
The margin for error is, as always, very slim. 11-1 is obviously still possible, because...math. But many of you are also saying 10-2 should get us into the CFP. You can't have it both ways. You can't say how "easy" the rest of the schedule is....and then in the same breath say it'd be okay if we lose to one of them. By default, if you're implying that all we have are "cupcakes" remaining, we can't afford to choke on any of them and still expect to get playoff consideration. Not in the 12-team CFP era anyway.
Barring complete chaos, IDHO, every contest from here on out is a de facto elimination game.