ESPN College Football

Posted by ESPN.com's Adam Rittenberg

The links might be a little Penn State-Ohio State heavy this week, but we'll do our best to give you a broad picture of what's going on around the league. 

Here's today's digest:

• Ohio State's euphoric win against Michigan State was tapered Sunday by the release of the initial BCS standings, which make a return to the BCS title game highly unlikely, Bill Rabinowitz writes in The Columbus Dispatch.
  

"Ohio State ranks ninth, barely ahead of Florida. How daunting would it be for the Buckeyes to leapfrog six teams and earn a third-straight spot in the title game? Well, consider that in the 10-year history of the BCS standings, only one team that made it to the championship game was ranked lower than sixth in the first BCS rankings. Louisiana State was 12th in 2003 and went on to win the BCS title."

• Michigan State can't afford an extended slide and another loss to in-state rival Michigan -- not with the fan base moving closer to the ledge, Eric Lacy writes in The Detroit News. 
  
• After true freshman Jason Ford stepped up against Indiana, Illinois plans to use a committee system at running back to complement star quarterback Juice Williams, Terry Bannon writes in the Chicago Tribune. 
• Purdue backup quarterback Joey Elliott likely will miss the rest of the season with a separated throwing shoulder, Tom Kubat writes in The (Lafayette, Ind.) Journal and Courier. That means it's the Curtis Painter show from here on out. 
• Penn State quarterback Daryll Clark wasn't pleased when people began asking him whether he would transfer if Terrelle Pryor had come to play for the Lions, Bernard Fernandez writes in the Philadelphia Daily News. Clark gets the chance to outperform Pryor on Saturday night at Ohio Stadium. 

"It was like they were assuming Pryor would just come in here and take the job," Clark said. "That was kind of frustrating."

• Things are going bad for Wisconsin, and there's little hope for a turnaround against Illinois, Mike Lucas writes in The Capital Times.