I assure you that this will not become the Big Ten Column of the Week. It is merely important, after Week 4 of the college football season, to focus on the Big Ten.

In the SEC, we know that Alabama, LSU, Georgia, and now Auburn, will play a bunch of big games later in the year. That was largely known before the season, with Texas A&M being seen as a possible replacement for Auburn. Now that Auburn has beaten A&M, that won’t happen. The larger point: The SEC’s power structure was known before the season. A few teams were obviously going to fight at the top for league supremacy.

In the ACC, we always knew it was Clemson and the 13 dwarfs. The first four weeks of the season have done nothing to change this view.

In the Big 12, it was Oklahoma and Texas and then everyone else. Guess what? Seven of the eight non-Texas, non-Oklahoma teams in the Big 12 have already lost, Kansas State being the only exception. The top of the league was always obvious. It still is.

The Pac-12 is actually not like the other Power Five conferences. It is a jumble, with USC’s win over Utah representing an unexpected plot twist. Washington State blowing a 32-point lead in a 67-63 loss to UCLA is another complete surprise.

The Pac-12 — as in other aspects of college football — is an exception. The Big Ten fits with the SEC, ACC and Big 12: There is a clear-cut layer at the top.

The nuance here: The 2019 Big Ten wasn’t necessarily expected to be this way.

The Ohio State Buckeyes and Wisconsin Badgers were NOT the obvious runaway choices as Big Ten division champions before the season (Ohio State in the Big Ten East, Wisconsin in the West). Michigan was seen by many (though not yours truly) as the East favorite. Wisconsin was probably the choice for most in the West, but there was a strong view among many pundits that the West could be chaotic.

Maybe Purdue would rise. Maybe Northwestern, the defending West champion, would again compete for the division title. Maybe Nebraska — which was a RANKED TEAM before the season began — would be better under coach Scott Frost. (I didn’t believe that, but others did.) Maybe Iowa would do something. (The Hawkeyes might be the one team which can still challenge Wisconsin in the West.)

Yet, after four weeks, the Michigan hype has clearly been blown to bits. Northwestern, Nebraska and Purdue look awful.

It is a two-team conference: Ohio State and Wisconsin are poised to meet in the Big Ten Championship Game, with the winner going to the College Football Playoff.

Jonathan Taylor made a STATEMENT against Michigan:

😤 23 carries for 203 yards
😤 2 rushing TDs
😤 8.8 YPC average

Wisconsin handles Michigan, 35-14 pic.twitter.com/5His2bjuqo

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) September 21, 2019

Wisconsin and Ohio State have noticeably separated themselves from the field in the Big Ten. They might lose a game or two, but the competition seems likely to lose at least three games in conference play. Tell me where a third or fourth team in the conference will emerge. Tell me which Big Ten team other than Wisconsin or Ohio State will become a reliable, every-week bastion of consistency in college football.

It was reasonable to think before the season that the Big Ten would be the jumbled and chaotic mess the Pac-12 has become. Urban Meyer, one of the great college football coaches of the 21st century, had left the sidelines. It was not ludicrous to think the Buckeyes would suffer as a result.

It was reasonable to think that after Wisconsin’s below-average 2018 season, the Badgers would remain a “decent but not special” team. After throttling Michigan, Wisconsin looks closer to its dominant 2017 edition than its mediocre 2018 product.

The Big Ten has followed the paths of the SEC, ACC and Big 12: There are a few teams at the top, and then there is everyone else. It is conspicuous that we haven’t even finished the first month of the college football season, and yet the hierarchies of most Power Five conferences are already clear at the top.

We will see if the next few weeks do anything to change that reality.