By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – With the Big Ten Conference now consisting of 18 football teams, ranking those 18 teams on a weekly basis is already challenging enough.

But when you throw in the wackiness from this season, it takes it to a whole new level; the wackiness being all the teams that seem pretty even from a performance and potential standpoint, and from a record standpoint.

There are currently seven teams in the conference with 5-3 overall records and six with 3-2 records in conference play.

Iowa is one of the six teams at 3-2 in the Big Ten, and is one of three teams in the conference with a 6-2 overall record, the others being Ohio State and Northwestern, which Iowa faces on Saturday in Evanston, Illinois.

The hottest team right now is undefeated UCLA with eight straight wins, followed by Illinois with three straight wins, while Nebraska is the coldest with three straight losses.

Ohio State fell to USC 30-18 on Saturday in Los Angeles and had two losses before November for the first time since 2011.

The Buckeyes are arguably the most talented team in the conference, but without injured quarterback Julian Sayin, the offense just isn’t the same, even with Jeremiah Smith playing wide receiver.

These rankings are always incredibly fluid, but with so much parity this season, they have become even more so because of all the surprising outcomes.

The same Minnesota team that was crushed by lowly Purdue, 41-13, on Oct. 10 in West Lafayette, Indiana has since defeated Iowa 13-10 at home and nearly defeated Indiana this past Saturday in Bloomington, Indiana, losing 23-16 in overtime.

Iowa defeated Washington 41-24 on Oct. 9 in Seattle, then lost at Minnesota by three points on Oct. 24 before bouncing back to crush Wisconsin 30-0 this past Saturday at Kinnick Stadium.

Speaking of the Badgers, they were coming off a 24-7 victory over USC when they faced Iowa on Saturday.

Unless you’re one of the few teams at or near the top of the conference standings, momentum has been hard to sustain.

My latest Big Ten power rankings admittedly show some Hawkeye bias.

But with Ohio State now playing without its starting quarterback, and with USC and Oregon far from being elite, I figured, what the heck, why not give Iowa the edge?

There isn’t a team currently ranked below Iowa that you could argue is significantly better, or even better at all, including the Buckeyes, who defeated Iowa 31-14 on Oct. 3 at Kinnick Stadium, but that was with now injured quarterback Julian Sayin passing for 324 yards and three touchdowns.

I’m not sure if Indiana and UCLA are better than Iowa on a good day.

But I’m also not sure if Iowa is better than Purdue on a bad day.

Minnesota fans might wonder why the Gophers are ranked below Iowa, and fair enough under the circumstances.

The reason is simple: I think Iowa is better than Minnesota, but just had a horrible day on offense when the teams met eight days ago. Iowa was also still trying to figure out its situation at quarterback.

Again, it’s just been wacky this season, but also kind of enjoyable if you don’t mind having no clue about what to expect from one week to the next.

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1. Indiana; 5-1, 8-1 – Curt Cignetti would look at this ranking and probably ask why he keeps being shown this ranking from some irrelevant hack in Iowa City.

2. UCLA; 5-0, 8-0 – If this winning keeps up, UCLA football would move ahead of fishing off the Santa Monica pier into 19th place on the list of the 20 most popular things to do in the Los Angeles area for entertainment.

3. Iowa; 3-2, 6-2 – If Kirk Ferentz saw this ranking he’d probably snort and dismiss it as outside noise and then say that his only concern is preparing for the next challenge against a very impressive Northwestern squad on the road, and the best way approach that challenge is to work on getting better each day, and to do so with a team-first mentality and with an unwavering focus and commitment to a greater cause.

4. Ohio State, 4-1, 6-2 – Being 6-2 at Ohio State is like being 2-6 at most other schools.

5. USC; 4-2, 7-2 – With USC beating Ohio State 30-18 this past Saturday in Los Angeles, the temperature of Lincoln Riley’s coaching seat has dropped from the temperature of the sun’s surface to the temperature of Venus.

6. Oregon; 3-2, 5-3 – Oregon might not be the best team that NIL money can buy. But the Ducks still are capable of playing that way at times, as was the case against Northwestern.

7. Northwestern; 3-2, 6-2 – The Wildcats were shredded for 336 passing yards in the loss at Oregon, which is the equivalent of a Northwestern student getting a C on a class assignment.

8. Minnesota; 3-2, 5-3 – P.J. Fleck went from thinking he’d be body surfing with his players after a historic win at Indiana to shaking Curt Cignetti’s hand in defeat just a few minutes later.

9. Illinois; 3-2, 5-3 – The Fighting Illini have won three games in a row, and the Illinois campus is barely a one-hour drive from the Beef House. Bret Bielema is living the good life.

10. Washington; 2-3, 5-3 – Since losing to Iowa 41-24 on Oct. 9 at home, the Huskies have won two straight road games against Purdue and Nebraska, and apparently are now playing some semblance of pass defense.

11. Wisconsin; 3-2, 5-3 – Wisconsin head coach Luke Fickell might have to rejoin his alma mater, Ohio State, in some capacity if he ever wants to beat Iowa again.

12. Nebraska; 2-3, 5-3 – At this rate, Nebraska under head coach Matt Rhule would only make the college playoff if it expands to 76 teams, as is the case with the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.

13. Michigan; 2-3, 5-3 – Just yet another reminder that Michigan should be 4-4.

14. Penn State; 1-4, 4-4 – The Nittany Lions have now moved one game ahead of 3-5 Iowa State in the latest Matt Campbell standings.

15. Purdue; 2-3, 3-5 – After its impressive 28-point win over Minnesota on Oct. 10, Purdue has turned back to being Pur-don’t with back-to-back losses to Washington at home and at Penn State.

16. Michigan State; 0-5, 2-6 – The Spartans get the benefit of the doubt over Rutgers and Maryland out respect for former Hawkeye running back Jazz Patterson and former Hawkeye punter Rhys Dakin, both of whom are now key contributors for Michigan State under first-year head coach Pat Fitzgerald, whose son, Ryan Fitzgerald, is a backup quarterback for Iowa.

17. Rutgers; 1-4, 2-6 – The Scarlet Knights were certainly competitive in 28-21 loss to Michigan at home on Saturday, but Greg Schiano isn’t being paid $6.75 million annually for moral victories.

18. Maryland; 0-5, 2-6 – The Terrapins showed a pulse in Saturday’s 20-17 loss to Illinois at home, but remain on life support while looking for a new head coach.