Big Ten and MSU basketball odds update: breaking down the Spartans' path to a Big Ten title

Saturday night the Michigan State Spartans did something that no other Tom Izzo coached team has ever done. MSU won a regular season conference game in the pacific time zone in the 80-63 win at Washington.

OK, so maybe the win was not that big of a deal. The road game at Washington ranks as just the ninth toughest game on the conference schedule. But considering two of the Spartans three conference losses last year came in the city of Los Angeles, getting the west coast road win was a hurdle that needed to be cleared.

With the win over the Huskies, the Spartans move to 6-1 in conference play. Let's dig back into the data to see where MSU stands and how the Big Ten race is likely to play out. Table 1 below shows the updated enhanced Big Ten standings as of Monday, Jan. 19.

Table 1: Enhanced Big Ten standings as of Jan. 19, 2026

Purdue and Nebraska are at the top of the standings with perfect 7-0 records. The Cornhuskers currently have an edge in strength of conference resume (+3.64) over Purdue (+2.49). This means that Nebraska has won over three-and-a-half more games than an average power four team would be expected to win playing the same conference schedule to date.

Michigan State is currently in a three-way tie for third place with Illinois and Michigan. In this case, the Spartans (+2.10) have an edge in strength of resume over both the Fighting Illini (+1.84) and the Wolverines (+1.10).

Wisconsin (5-2) is alone in sixth place. The Badgers are one game ahead of UCLA and Ohio State. There is then a four-way tie for ninth place between Minnesota, USC, Indiana, and Iowa.

Rutgers and Washington are tied for 13th place with a pair of wins. Maryland and Oregon have just one conference win while Penn State and Northwestern are both winless.

Table 2 below gives the updated conference win matrix.