ESPN College Football

Posted by ESPN.com's Adam Rittenberg

As I sit here in O'Hare Airport waiting for a now-delayed flight to Minneapolis, my thoughts have turned to No. 17 Minnesota, quite possibly the nation's biggest surprise this season. Tim Brewster certainly should be considered for national coach of the year honors, and coordinator Ted Roof's transformation of the nation's worst defense is admirable.

The Gophers win with opportunistic football, leading the nation in both takeaways (24) and turnover margin (plus-1.88). Quarterback Adam Weber is a perfect fit for Mike Dunbar's offense, and Eric Decker might be the nation's most underrated wide receiver.

All great stuff, but how good is this team? We might not know for a while.

Only one of Minnesota's seven victories has come against a team with a winning record (Northern Illinois). Minnesota's road win at Illinois was solid, but the Illini have been a major disappointment this season. And the Gophers could run the table and go 11-1 without beating a ranked opponent, which is mind-boggling.

This is mostly the fault of the Big Ten's unbalanced schedule, which took both Penn State and Michigan State off the Gophers' slate this season. It can also be attributed to Minnesota's tradition of four-ply nonconference schedules, designed to get the team to minor bowl games despite poor Big Ten records. Also, it would help if the Big Ten were a little stronger this year.

Thankfully, this pattern will change in the coming years, as Minnesota has games against Cal, Washington State (they'll be better by then), Colorado and Air Force.

So while I'm excited to finally see the Gophers in person Saturday, I don't expect to come away with many definitive answers about this team. It would help if 6-2 Northwestern was at full strength.

Other potential tests await as the Gophers visit Wisconsin (Nov. 15) and host Iowa (Nov. 22), but we might not get a great gauge until the postseason. Unfortunately, this is the problem with an unbalanced Big Ten schedule and no league championship game.

The Gophers and their fans deserve to celebrate the season and the strides the program is making. But the rest of the country might reserve judgment until late December or early January.