SBNation FanPulse Top 25 Week 3: Decline of the B1G

College football’s third week of action was largely uneventful, at least with regards to games featuring potential top-tier teams. But there were plenty of important matchups on the lower rungs that shook up the SBNation college community’s interactive rankings, especially for Northwestern’s Big Ten rivals.

Here is this week’s blog-wide FanPulse Top 25:

Notably, despite the losses suffered by the Spartans and Terrapins, the two teams were not published harshly by the fans who voted, with each remaining in the rankings. Meanwhile, Cal continues to not crack the top 25 while Washington sits at #21 (along with some other head-to-head discrepancies.

Dare I say, the Inside NU community-specific poll looks much better (this week at least):

Wildcat fans actually banished Maryland from the ranks of the ranked, while MSU held on by a thread but was passed by Herm Edwards’ Sun Devils. Top teams, though, look pretty much the same broadly across both polls.

In another intriguing development, Saturday’s ultimately solid win over UNLV did appear to bolster the confidence of some ‘Cats fans with regards to the program writ large, as that statistic (the other measured by FanPulse) continues to trend up.

Apparently, there are plenty of trigger-happy voters, at least in this regard, among some of you. It remains to be seen if the upcoming difficult stretch will meaningfully affect these numbers.

If you are just learning about FanPulse now and want to become a part of it, you cans sign up on the Inside NU side of things via THIS LINK. Don’t miss out on a chance to have your voice heard!

Note: If you did not receive a ballot this week, that was thanks to a system glitch from SurveyMonkey that they are in the process of getting figured out. Don’t fret.