Here is an early skinny from suite101.com (?) on Michigan State v Iowa this week... as the Big Ten nation begins to shake with excitement for the weekend's prime-time tilt.

Undefeated Hawkeyes Face Another Difficult Big Ten Road Test. You can still snake some tickets to this sold-out affair, if you've got deep pockets.

Over at ESPN.com, Adam Rittenberg moves our Spartans up the conference leaderboard to 4th. Way, way, way back in week four (that's three weeks ago), the Big Green was settling for 9th. Then, we took out the Yellow Bellies.

Statistically speaking, MSU is settling down and is now solidly above average in total offense (#32), and very good in passing offense (#17), is above average in total defense (#44), and is very good in rush defense (#19). Interior play is significant with the Spartan D-line ranked #11 in sacks and its O-line ranked #13 in sacks allowed. Who would've thunk all of that three weeks ago?

Category	Nat'l Rank	Actual	Nat'l Leader	Actual	Conf Rank	Big Ten Leader	Actual
Rushing Offense	71	136.43	Nevada	292.83	6	Michigan	235.00
Passing Offense	17	280.43	Houston	431.50	1	Michigan St.	280.43
Total Offense	32	416.86	Houston	560.33	3	Penn St.	432.71
Scoring Offense	48	29.29	Texas	42.00	3	Michigan	37.29
Rushing Defense	19	99.00	Texas	35.83	3	Penn St.	75.43
Pass Efficiency Defense	90	134.74	Alabama	83.82	8	Iowa	88.69
Total Defense	44	334.86	Alabama	226.57	5	Penn St.	238.86
Scoring Defense	42	21.57	Florida	8.67	4	Penn St.	8.71
Net Punting	26	37.57	Georgia	44.06	5	Michigan	41.88
Punt Returns	40	10.67	Georgia Tech	24.88	2	Minnesota	19.00
Kickoff Returns	28	24.48	Stanford	32.48	4	Ohio St.	25.96
Turnover Margin	95	-.57	Air Force	2.43	9	Iowa	1.57
Pass Defense	85	235.86	North Carolina	125.17	9	Penn St.	163.43
Passing Efficiency	24	146.28	Florida	167.25	1	Michigan St.	146.28
Sacks	T-11	3.00	Southern California	4.33	1	Michigan St.	3.00
Tackles For Loss	T-61	5.86	Cincinnati	10.17	7	Penn St.	8.43
Sacks Allowed	13	.86	Oklahoma St.	.33	1	Michigan St.	.86