The No. 3 football team in Iowa is ... Iowa?

Hey, don't shoot the messenger, Hawkeye fans. For one thing, it's illegal. For another ... just don't do it. Please.

The Sagarin Ratings is one of six sets of computer rankings used by the BCS for its rankings. Sagarin says the No. 45 team in Division I football (FBS and FCS combined) is Iowa State, 4-4 overall and 1-3 in the Big 12 Conference.

At No. 63, Sagarin has Northern Iowa, 6-2.

And at No. 65, Sagarin has Iowa, 5-3 overall and 2-2 in the Big Ten.

Iowa's strength-of-schedule to date is causing a lot of that commotion. The NCAA ranks Iowa's strength of past schedule as the 112th-toughest out of the 120 FBS teams. Its strength of future schedule is 6th. Iowa State's strength of future schedule, even though it includes lowly Kansas this week, is 4th.

We could have quite the debate about who does have the best team in the state, but Iowa State gets scoreboard by virtue of its homefield wins over Northern Iowa (20-19) and Iowa (44-41 in triple-overtime). Northern Iowa is coming off a 27-19 loss at North Dakota State, which is ranked No. 50 in the Sagarin Ratings. UNI and NDSU could meet again deep in the FCS playoffs. NDSU, by the way, won 37-24 at Minnesota.

I would suggest neither Iowa or UNI would win at Texas Tech by 34 points like Iowa State did Saturday night. But in college football, how can we say anything with certainty?

Other Big Ten teams in the Sagarins:

12. Nebraska

17. Michigan

19. Wisconsin

20. Michigan State

22. Penn State

29. Ohio State

43. Illinois

64. Purdue

94. Northwestern

114. Minnesota

149. Indiana

Other Big 12 teams in the Sagarins:

3. Oklahoma State

4. Oklahoma

8. Texas A&M

9. Texas

11. Missouri

18. Kansas State

25. Baylor

39. Texas Tech

92. Kansas