"It's a fine mess you've gotten us into," they could have yelled collectively in their best Oliver Hardy imitation as they beheld the opening weekend of league play.

Iowa. Winner of four straight games including a serious thumping of cross-state rival Iowa State for the first time in four years.

Michigan State. Lost at home to Louisiana Tech (About which Fox football wag/La Tech grad Terry Bradshaw wouldn't let us forget the following morning), hung on to win at 1-3 Notre Dame.

But from the start, it was Jeff Smoker's day as the No. 25 Spartans hit the currently No. 23 Hawkeyes' proud defense with two clinically executed touchdown drives, climaxing with a 17-yard scoring pass to Ziehl Kavanaught and a 7-yarder to Eric Knott.

"They changed things up," Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz told The Associated Press's James Prichard. "They came out in a little different offense (than the consistent cross-field passing game at Notre Dame), and threw some screens at us."

Had Ferentz's staff checked a few Louisville tapes from 2002, they would have had little difficulty detecting the Spartans' gameplan. Coach John L. Smith, who changed addresses this past winter, simply substituted Smoker for his former ace quarterback, Dave Ragone, who led U of L to two straight bowl games.

"That first drive was a thing of beauty, certainly," Ferentz conceded. Smoker went 7-for-7 and sliced the Hawks' secondary repeatedly as the K boys kept finding medium-range openings in Iowa's pass defense.

After Iowa pulled within 14-7 in the second quarter, though, the big momentum-changer came on Monquez Wedlow's sack of Iowa quarterback Nathan Chandler, forcing a fumble that killed a late Hawkeyes drive.

"I don't know, I just let loose," Wedlow told Prichard. He'd terrorized both Carlyle Holiday and Brady Quinn at Notre Dame the previous Saturday. "That's the way you win games, you win the turnover battle."

Michigan State will host Indiana (1-4) Saturday while Iowa will find bouncing back most difficult as it hosts No. 9 Michigan (4-1).

In Columbus, No. 3 Ohio State's defense led the Buckeyes (5-0) to a tougher-than-expected 20-0 win over Northwestern (2-3).

N.U.'s talented quarterback, Brett Basanez, was frustrated by the Bucks' airtight pass coverage and Ohio State limited Northwestern to 185 total yards. Problem was, the Buckeyes, playing without Craig Krenzel for the second straight week, managed only 311 against the Wildcats' active defenders.

A killer for N.U. came when Basanez scrambled for a second-quarter 8-yard T.D. that would have cut the deficit to 10-7 at that point, but tackle Zack Streif was detected holding A.J. Hawk.

Lydell Ross scored on a 12-yard bolt up the middle and Krenzel's replacement, Scott McMullen hit Ryan Hamby for a one-yard score for O.S.U.'s only T.D.s.

But the quote of the day came from N.U. coach Randy Walker. "I shudder to say this in these confines," he told the Chicago Sun-Times' Brian Hanley, "but (former, ulp, Michigan coach and Ohio State assistant and Columbus public enemy No. 1) Bo Schembechler said it best when he said, 'Momentum is the most important thing in football.' "

The Bucks will get a week off before hoping to keep their momentum in Madison, Wis, in a nationally-televised game against Wisconsin (4-1) at 8 p.m. C.T. (9 New York time). N.U. will host No. 21 Minnesota (5-0) this Saturday.

What would life be without a refereeing controversy in Beaver Stadium? In Penn State's 20-14 loss to Minnesota, the first half came down to yet another bungled call by a Big Ten officiating crew.

With Zack Mills sidelined with a sprained knee, Michael Robinson started for the Nittany Lions (2-3) and the 106,000 plus were anticipating a halftime tie after Robinson drove Penn State to the Minnesota 11 following a strong defensive stand.

But Robinson's pass end zone-bound pass was deflected and replays indicated with HDTV plasmic clarity, bounced in front of Golden Gophers' defensive back Terrance Campbell. The officials huddled. Bad news. They stayed huddled. Worse news.

And shakily endorsed Campbell's "interception," as the mob went nuts.

"Everybody on our sideline thought it hit the ground and was not an interception," Paterno told The Associated Press. "I said (to the referee) 'It bounced,' and he said, 'It didn't.' What else is there to say?"

Indeed. And this week, the Lions face Wisconsin (4-1) in their homecoming while Minnesota travels to Northwestern.

"It seems like everything is going against us," Robinson told The Philadelphia Inquirer. "One of these days things will start going our way. But it gets frustrating. You look up at the sky and say, 'When is it going to go our way?' "

In Michigan's 31-17 win over determined Indiana, the Wolverines seemed in a fun. Maybe the specter of next Saturday's visit to Iowa City, Chris Perry? "I don't think we were entirely focused on this game," he admitted to A.P. "I don't think it was a hangover (from the 31-27 blindsiding at Oregon the week before), but I don't know what it was."

Perry ran for 112 yards in 21 carries, but fumbled twice. And Michigan, ahead 31-3 late in the third quarter, then began reaching for the finish line prematurely, staggering through a fourth quarter that saw the Hoosiers score two late TDs.

One encouraging sign was the play of Braddock, Pa. product Steve Breaston, who led Pennsylvania's Big 33 All Stars past Ohio in the 2002 game. He returned a punt 69 yards to set up one Michigan touchdown and caught a 20 yard T.D. pass from John Navarre.

ANOTHER B.C.S. BIGGIE FEELS HUSKIES' BITE — Can't call this one an upset. But Northern Illinois (4-0) jumped to No. 17 with a 24-16 win over Iowa State before a record home crowd of 28,218...Wisconsin prepped for its visit to Penn State with a 38-20 crunching of Illinois (1-4) in Champaign that had many of the 60,000 or so Memorial Stadium fans verbally backing up the vans onto coach Ron Turner's front lawn.