By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – I’m old enough to remember when doing the Big Ten football power rankings actually consisted of ranking just 10 teams.

Then along came Penn State in the early 1990s followed by Nebraska, Rutgers and Maryland, and now more recently Oregon, USC, UCLA and Washington.

The four West Coast schools all joined the conference this season, and right now all four are undefeated, as are seven other teams in the conference.

Ohio State after two games looks like a typical Buckeye squad with loads of talent on both offense and defense, while Michigan hardly looks like the team that won a national title last season, and that’s because it’s far from being that team.

The Wolverines, under new head coach Sherrone Moore, have been hit hard by graduation, and it’s never easy replacing a highly successful head coach with Jim Harbaugh having left his alma mater after last season to coach the Los Angeles Chargers.

USC has been very impressive on both sides of the line of scrimmage after performing woefully on defense in recent seasons under head coach Lincoln Riley.

Instead of ranking the teams from one to 18, I put them into three groups, because for one, it would have been a lot of work to rank all 18 teams in order, and because there just haven’t been enough games played to know where each team stands.

Group 1

Ohio State, 2-0 – It’s amazing what $20 million of NIL money can purchase from a talent standpoint.

USC, 2-0 – There is no D in USC. Oh wait, that lame joke doesn’t apply anymore since the Trojans are actually playing defense under new defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn, who was hired away from UCLA.

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Group 2

Oregon, 2-0 – The Ducks needed a punt return and a kick return for touchdowns, along with a last-second field goal to beat Boise State 37-34 this past Saturday in Eugene. Time to raise more NIL money.

Penn State, 2-0 – “You’ve got to give Bowling Green a ton of credit. In the last three years they beat Minnesota, they beat Georgia Tech, Michigan last year was 14-6 at the half, 32 seniors, and you’ve got to give them credit.” Penn State head coach James Franklin makes his plea to AP voters after last Saturday’s uninspiring 34-27 victory over Bowling Green.

Nebraska, 2-0 – Bring on Georgia!

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Group 3 (in no particular order)

Illinois, 2-0 – The Fighting Illini defeated then 19th-ranked Kansas 23-17 this past Saturday in Champaign despite only gaining 271 yards, and converting on just 6-of-15 third-down plays. It just shows that you can take Bret Bielema out of Iowa football, but you can’t take Iowa football out of Bret Bielema.

Indiana, 2-0 – The Hoosiers crushed Western Illinois 77-3 last Saturday as Curt Cignetti became the fourth Indiana head coach since 1948 to win his first two games at the school. That doesn’t seem very impressive until your realize that Jerry Burns is the only Iowa head coach since 1947 to win his first two games as he accomplished that modest feat in 1961 after having replaced Forest Evashevski. The Hawkeyes would go on to finish just 5-4 that season, and that would be Iowa’s last winning season until 1981 when Hayden Fry led Iowa to the Rose Bowl, and to an 8-4 record.

Michigan State, 2-0 – With last Saturday’s 27-24 win at Maryland, Jonathan Smith became the first Michigan State head coach to win his Big Ten debut since John L. Smith in 2003. Bubba Smith also played for Michigan State, as did Steve Smith in basketball.

Rutgers, 2-0 – Couldn’t think of anything petty or snarky to say about the Scarlet Knights, who are 2-0 for the fourth straight season, last achieving the feat from 1958 to 1961. Although, to go that long between four straight 2-0 starts is pretty lame.

Wisconsin, 2-0 – The Badgers are sort of like a hugely successful heavy metal band that lost its legendary front man nearly two decades ago and then has slowly sunk to barely being a front act.

Washington, 2-0 – The Huskies would be in group one if these ranking were based on frequent flyer miles.

Michigan, 1-1 – The Wolverines might want to start spying on opponents again.

Iowa, 1-1 – Hawkeye fans are clamoring for a quarterback change and questioning the play calling, so it’s life as usual under Kirk Ferentz, even with a new offensive coordinator.

Purdue, 1-0 – Notre Dame was obviously looking past Northern Illinois to this Saturday’s game at Purdue.

Maryland, 1-1 – Maryland also lost on a last-second field goal this past Saturday at home, so it makes you wonder if Kirk Ferentz called Brian Ferentz or if Brian called Kirk to express sympathy?

UCLA, 1-0 – UCLA stands for the University of California Los Angeles. The school is located in Los Angeles as first-year head coach DeShaun Foster so awkwardly pointed out in his now-famous opening statement at Big Ten media day. UCLA defeated Hawaii 20-13 in the season opener. Hawaii is an island state of the United States of America in the Pacific Ocean.

Northwestern, 1-1 – The Wildcats lost to Duke 26-20 in double overtime this past Saturday on their temporary playing field, and in what is called “The Battle of the Brains.” It was also the battle of the offensively impaired.

Minnesota, 1-1 – The Gophers lost to North Carolina 19-17 in their season opener at home and then crushed FCS opponent Rhode Island 48-0 in game two at home. Minnesota is Iowa, only with the games reversed.