Posted-September 4th, 2012 5:11 pm

The Big Ten takes a step up in competition this week, with seven games against opponents from BCS conferences.

Five are on the road, including three trips to the West Coast.

Big Ten teams are 24-38-1 in regular-season games in the Pacific time zone or Hawaii since 1990. Take away Wisconsin and Nebraska's combined 15-4-1 record, and the mark is 9-34.

The West Coast games: No. 13 Wisconsin (1-0) at Oregon State (0-0), No. 16 Nebraska (1-0) at UCLA (1-0) and Illinois (1-0) at Arizona State (1-0). The other road games have Penn State (0-1) at Virginia (1-0) and Purdue (1-0) at No. 22 Notre Dame (1-0).

The Big Ten was 10-2 last week, but the lowlights included Michigan's 41-14 loss to Alabama and some narrow wins.

(Copyright Associated Press)