By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Raise your hand if you predicted before the season that Northwestern and Purdue would deserve to be ranked ahead of Michigan and Penn State at this stage of the college football season, because I sure didn’t.

But that is certainly the case in my latest Big Ten football power rankings.

Northwestern and Purdue are trending in the right direction, while Michigan and Penn State, and let’s don’t forget about Oregon, are all moving in the wrong direction.

I’m not ready to put Purdue in front of Oregon just yet, but the Boilermakers are definitely making noticeable progress under second-year head coach Barry Odom.

Just ask Minnesota head coach PJ Fleck, whose team was crushed by Purdue 41-13 on Saturday in West Lafayette, Indiana.

As for your Iowa Hawkeyes, they rebounded from their 31-14 loss to Ohio State at home in impressive fashion by defeating Washington 41-24 this past Friday in Seattle, and in a game that wasn’t as close as the final score would suggest.

Iowa now enters the bye week with momentum and with a realistic chance of making the 12-team playoff with six games left in the regular season.

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1. Ohio State; 3-0, 5-1 – Roses are red, violets are blue, Ohio State has more talent than you.

2. Indiana; 3-0, 6-0 – Roses are red, violets are blue, Curt Cignetti would see this ranking and probably say, screw you.

3. UCLA; 3-0, 5-0 – UCLA head coach Bob Chesney, who replaced Curt Cignetti as the James Madison head coach in 2024, so far is doing a pretty good Cignetti impression in his first season, minus the snark and insults.

4. USC; 3-1, 6-1 – You can’t make the College Playoff without first becoming bowl eligible, which USC accomplished by defeating Penn State 31-23 this past Saturday for its sixth win. But with USC’s next three games at Wisconsin, at home against Ohio State and at Indiana, bowl eligible might be as good as it gets this season under Lincoln Riley.

5. Iowa; 2-1, 5-1 – Kirk Ferentz would look at this ranking and probably say respectfully that rankings are so subjective and don’t really mean anything and that his players need to use the upcoming bye week as a chance to briefly get away from the daily grind, and maybe even visit with family, to get healthier, to recharge mentally, and to work on the fundamentals that often are the difference between winning and losing.

6. Northwestern; 2-0, 4-1 – This has nothing to do with anything football related, but coming out of high school, I had a better chance of climbing Mount Everest while carrying William “Refrigerator” Perry on my back than meeting Northwestern’s academic requirements.

7. Nebraska; 2-1, 5-1 – Nebraska fans were ready to party like it’s 1999 while leading Indiana in the fourth quarter. But now they’re dealing with a 31st consecutive loss to a ranked opponent and with knowing that Nebraska is a women’s volleyball school.

8. Wisconsin, 2-0, 4-1 – With the Badgers finally showing a pulse under head coach Luke Fickell, I wonder if he will stop wearing socks with dress shoes? That’s an inside joke.

9. Oregon; 1-1, 3-2 – It now seems obvious that Oregon needs three former five-star quarterbacks on its roster instead of just two.

10. Purdue; 2-1, 3-3 – So what now, Purdue is also on the rise in the state of Indiana? Isn’t this the basketball crazy state that gave us the movie, “Hoosiers” 40 years ago?

11. Minnesota; 2-1, 4-2 – With the Gophers having lost by 28 points at Purdue this past Saturday, maybe Minnesota head coach PJ Fleck saw Purdue’s black and gold colors and mistakenly thought his team was facing Iowa.

12. Michigan; 0-2, 3-2 – Coming off a bye week, the Wolverines now host Penn State on Saturday in a game that has absolutely no impact on the College Playoff, so maybe it should be called The Has Been Bowl.

13. Illinois, 1-2, 3-3 – Losing to a rebuilding and depleted Michigan State squad, even in East Lansing,  would have been almost as bad as ordering seafood at the Beef House; so for Bret Bielema crisis avoided, but just barely,

14. Penn State; 0-3, 3-3 – Iowa State East has the same 3-3 record as Iowa State Midwest.

15. Washington; 0-3, 3-3 – The Huskies have been decimated by injuries at the running back position, but that still doesn’t excuse their defense from allowing 262 rushing yards against an Iowa team that had been held to fewer than 100 rushing yards in its previous three games against power-conference opponents.

Hollywood should consider a new movie; Defenseless in Seattle.

16. Maryland; 0-3, 2-4 – The Terrapins are always described as having talent and potential, but where they often come up short is the performance part.

17. Michigan State; 0-3, 2-4 – You could argue that Pat Fitzgerald deserves some praise for going for two points against Illinois with the game on the line when he didn’t have to by rule. His explanation after losing, 38-37, was that his defense was too beaten up and depleted by injuries.

Fitzgerald called the decision a no brainer, saying  “scared money, don’t make money.”

And while that might be true, losing at home to a mediocre Illinois squad and remaining winless in conference play probably doesn’t help make NIL money.

18. Rutgers; 0-2, 1-4 – The Scarlet Knights are in such a funk that it’s sort of surprising they didn’t lose a game this weekend even though it was a bye week.