by Jon Miller, Publisher of HawkeyeNation.com
The gnashing of teeth over Iowa’s #1 ranking in the computer portion of the BCS has begun.
Dan Wetzel tweeted the following Sunday night: ‘Iowa actually has 2 wins over BCS top 25. But No. 1? Computers hate USC (9) despite 2 top 25 wins. USC shoulda played Ark State’
That isn’t the only comment, but it’s to the heart of what many people are going to be talking about all across the nation, the same as they did last week. ESPN Radio’s Colin Cowherd (no, I am not going to use the name some of you used as a play on words of his last name, one that includes cow and another that rhymes with herd, but is far more malodorous) ripped on Iowa last week, saying they didn’t belong.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the resumes of the teams that sports talkers will pimp this week, while at the same time trying to tear down Iowa.
Alabama: According to Jeff Sagarin’s computer formula, Alabama has played the 27th most difficult schedule in the nation; Iowa is at 15. They have three wins over teams currently in the BCS Top 25. In their last three wins against Ole Miss, South Carolina and Tennessee, they haven’t scored more than 22 points in any of those contests, averaging just 18 points per game. Their average score in those three games is 18.0 to 6.3. And here I thought the Big Ten was the only conference that played games like that? They have a great defense and they are making plays when they have to in order to win games. And for that, people are saying things like ‘Champions have to get lucky along the way if they are going to win it all. Alabama is playing like a champion.’ That came from the mouth of Lou Holtz last night, just after ESPN led off College Football Final with Iowa-MSU highlights (at least they led off with the Hawks) and several more mentions of how Iowa isn’t the prettiest car on the lot. Sorry, but ‘Bama ain’t no 1968 Camaro, either.
Florida: In their last three games, they have won by an average score of 21.6 to 14.0 against LSU, Arkansas and Mississippi State. They have not scored 30 points in any of those games, and they were the beneficiaries of some debatable calls in their last two games, especially against Arkansas; the SEC crew that did that game was put on hiatus. Sagarin ranks their strength of schedule thus far at #39 in the nation. Florida has just one win against a team currently in the BCS top 25, and the rest of their schedule sees just one more team currently on that list, and that is #22 South Carolina. But, they have Tim Tebow at quarterback, so that means the national media isn’t going to poke too hard. They’ll say things like ‘Florida is all about the championships, and it’s hard for great teams to get up each week when everyone is gunning for them.’ Hmmm..let’s see…Iowa has played four straight games where the opponent felt they were a Big Ten title contender; Penn State, Michigan, Wisconsin and Michigan State. Penn State felt the Iowa game was their biggest of the year and the largest obstacle between them and Pasadena. Michigan felt that it could beat every team on its schedule, Wisconsin was looking at an 11-1 season and a share of the Big Ten title right in the face if they got past Iowa and Michigan State knew if it won out, it would probably be headed to Pasadena. However, don’t expect anyone outside of the Big Ten Network to realize that.
Texas: The Longhorns have played yet another embarrassingly simple non-conference slate, and for that, the computers hate them; They have a strength of schedule south of 50th. Sagarin ranks the Longhorns #14 in the poll he submits to the BCS. They have played just one team in the BCS Top 25 and have just one more game against a team currently in the BCS Top 25, and that is this week against Oklahoma State. The other team was Oklahoma, and they won that one 16-13 and Sam Bradford was out for the final three quarters. If the folks down in Texas want to complain again this year, look no further than the weak OOC schedule; those of us that don’t wear the burnt orange saw this coming back in May.
USC: The Computers put the Trojans at #10. USC has three wins against teams currently in the BCS Top 25, and I am sure Pete Carroll will talk about that this week. Of course, last week, Iowa was the only team in the BCS poll with three wins against Top 25 teams, but now that Wisconsin has been knocked out of the Top 25 after having a bye week, Pete and his minions are free to use that factoid. Pete ripped the computers last week amidst sips of Merlot and hitting the replay button for another rendition of ‘Lean on Me’ while slipping into a cardigan sweater by a propane fireplace. He wondered if college football was interested in the computers or finding the best teams. Pete, it’s real simple; beat Washington and we are not even having a debate here. Hey, the Trojans beat Oregon State at home by six points this week, but that is better than Iowa’s 10 point win ON THE ROAD at Wisconsin, or their 11 point win ON THE ROAD at Penn State, or their two-point win ON THE ROAD at Michigan State, because USC scored 42 points in their six-point win and it was more easy on the eyes, I guess. Phooey to that. But their 18-15 win at Ohio State, a team that lost at Purdue, that was ‘gutty’ or ‘gritty’.
ESPN has an article up on how LSU controls its own destiny, even with one loss. Everyone is jocking the Horned Frogs of TCU right now, and don’t forget about Cincy or Boise State.
That’s all well and good, and each of those teams has an interesting story to tell. But so do the Iowa Hawkeyes.
Iowa: The computers respect what Iowa has done, ranking them #1 this week. Sure, I have bagged on the computers before, and I still struggle to understand how the computer polls are really non-biased when humans enter the criteria for which they crunch. Still, the Coaches Poll is fraudulent, and I think more than half of the Harris Poll voters go to bed before 6pm central, having beaten the rush for the Blue Plate Special down at the local buffet and turn out the lights by ‘Clapping Off’. Iowa has the most impressive road resume of any team in the nation; please email me if you find another.
Is Iowa pretty? Not to many in this spread crazy era, but they win; 12 in a row in fact, the 2nd best winning streak in the nation. In their last six games away from Kinnick Stadium, they have won by an average score of 29.5 to 7.6. No team has scored more than 13 points on them, and it took Michigan State 58:23 to get to the 13-point mark this week. Iowa has not lost a football game for 357 days. They start two freshmen tailbacks, they have played a significant portion of the year without their NFL left tackle an their NFL tight end. They lost a starting cornerback and running back in the summer. Their receiving corp has been healthy for a total of one game this year. No, they are not the prettiest tractor in the field, but they have the constitution of a Ford 8N. In case you don’t know, those tractors never die. These Hawkeyes are indeed the Rocky Balboa of college football circa 2009. If the rest of the nation doesn’t like them, they can take a hike. We’ll take these gutty, gritty, determined Hawkeyes, who are doing what championship teams do; win the next one in front of them.
Tags: BCS, Big Ten Football, hawkeye football, Hawkeye Nation, hawkeyenation.com, Iowa football, iowa hawkeyes, Jon Miller, Top 25 Poll
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Love that article…facts are facts, just hope we keep winning!!!
I think that people that rank teams fall into two categories.
- resume rankers vs.
- eyeball testers
the computer ranking systems, the AP voter from Ohio who got the press early in the year and a few others are ‘resume rankers.’ They like the Hawks because they appreciate what they have done.
OTOH, most of the talking heads on tv are ‘eyeball testers’ They openly filter every thing thru there own biases and will try to twist reality to fit their notions of ‘the way things should be’
These guys of course love Florida, Texas and USC. They hate the Hawks. They will use past results (e.g. tOSU’s flops in NC game, USCs results in Rose Bowl’s), number of draft picks and recruiting rankings etc. to make their arguments when results on the field aren’t to their satisfaction.
There are enough of them and they have a large enough platform to screw the hawks. Watch it happen.
At what point do we try to create a website and fly an airplane over other teams’ games like the whiny Texas fans did last year?
I like the Rocky Balboa analogy. If I had video of all the games so far this year I would make a highlight video with a Rocky theme. ScotHawk… what do you say?
Great article john, though I think you should compare THESE Iowa Hawkeyes to a John Deere tractor; the most powerful tractor on the planet!! What is wrong with you?? The Ford 8N?? C’mon, we’re in Eastern Iowa, Jon!!
I see it like this… If you really want to have positive reinforcement for following a team… Be there for them BEFORE they jump on the scene. Most Iowa fans don’t love the Hawks because they also expect admiration from the rest of the country… They love the Hawks because the Hawkeyes go to work, every week, bust their butts, get the job done, then get ready to do it all over again… Without complaint… Just like every Iowan does!
Go Hawks!
I can stomach any talk about any of the other undefeated teams being better than us. I may not agree, but I can stomach it.
But I am so off-the-charts sick of effing USC. They LOST. To a sub-.500 Washington squad. The fact that they are ranked ahead of us in any ranking is disgusting and it is based solely on name recognition.
I hope Congress does institute a playoff so we can stop all these human-based rankings.
Hawkeye Nation is the voice for good! Since when does a team with a schedule ranked #15 and an 8-0 record not deserve to be in the top five??? This national opposition to Iowa’s success is outrageous.
I’m assuming most of the pollsters that actually have a clue are just looking ahead at our last road game and assuming we can’t possibly win. Once we do the polls will right themselves.
Having said that I do wish the people to get picked to vote in these things try to be a little more impartial. It would also be nice if these institutions adopt some sort of accountability.
I mean when you look at the amount of money at stake it seems wrong to just take a random sample of people who all have specific ties to various institutions, give them no guidelines, and keep their votes secret.
If Iowa wants national respect, the solution is very simple. Beat the mediocre teams, Indiana and Northwestern, like they should. No more of these close games against teams that they should beat by at least a touchdown. They need to play above their competition in these next two games.
If Iowa is at all interested in competing for a national championship, then they need the national respect. If not, who cares if they have national respect or not? If they win out, they go to the Rose Bowl and prove that they belong by beating a team like USC.
We did get one 1st place vote in the Harris Poll… Someone likes us hahaha… Oh well folks, The Hawks just need to keep doing what they do best, go out and win… The defense will lead us in the right way and they are playing probably the best they have all season! We just need the offense to be healthy for more than one game! Once the offense clicks, watch out…. GO HAWKS!!!
The hawkeyes are not the prettiest tractor out there for certain,they reside in a small media market so the folks who talk at ESPN or other sports outlets tend to overlook them for various reasons.All hawk fans should take coach Ferentz’s cue and let the wins speak for themselves. Let Florida,Alabama,TCU,Boise state,Texas, ect.. Play at Happy valley,Camp Randall,and East Lansing to see how well they perform!! Ask the players on the teams the Hawks have beaten if the think the Hawks deserve the rankings the computers have produced. Personally I would take a tractor over a Porsche in a collision every time!!! It would not be pretty but I am certain of the outcome!!!
I can’t believe no one is talking about Jesse Palmer’s 15 minutes of fame last night?! Who is Todd Mc Shay? These guys had absolutely no substance to their discussion on College Football Live when talking about the Hawks.
That one Harris Poll voter that voted us number one was Jim Walden according to Walden on last night’s JIM/JIM show.
Jessie Palmer was simply pimping for the glamour schools. The Hawks just need to keep winning, and a Texas loss helps. The BCS faces a conundrum if Fla/Ala, Texas, and Iowa are all undefeated at year’s end. Any of the three can make a solid case that they should have a chance in the National Title game. Past years, past conference records should not matter at all. Each team should be evaluated on their 2009 season alone. Any team with one loss simply should not be able to pass an undefeated school (USC).
Indiana and Northwestern should be viewed as an opportunity for the Hawks, given the injury situation we likely face. Should be a great time to work on the short passing game in place of some of our tradtional power running. I beleive this will be helpful as we prepare to play in Columbus. There, our passing game will be instrumental to a balanced attack that can move the ball consistently.
I do not envision us putting up 40+ points this year but the Hawks have a decent crew of recievers for once and Stanzi after some early season jitters has gone without throwing an INT or a pick 6….It kills me to watch the conservativeness of our Offensive play calling. Don’t get me wrong it has gotten us this far (thanks for all the second lives), but going down the stretch and especially with the injuries now we may need to try something a little more out there. Our passing game which the announcers kept dogging on Saturday night consisted of 2 recievers and maybe TM against a defesive backfield that could double us up. Why do we never throw caution to the wind and put a 3 or 4 wide scheme in there and try throwing the ball….I know it was against a prevent D but I think we could put some points on the board. Plus when you do this and mix in some screens and such it may actually make some of these games alot of fun to watch. Not to mention it would give us some extra brownie “aka BCS” points too down the stretch. Someone please shake KOK and wake him up….we can make this fun and make a huge exclamation point as we wind this schedule down!
Go Hawks!
PS – Living in Ohio I am praying that we can once and for all shut down these Buckeye fans….they can get annoying!
Very disappointed in the Ford tractor reference.
The rest of the article, spot on!!!
Could not have said it better myself. The bias against Iowa is quite amazing. Every week the crew on GameDay consistenly picks against Iowa and then the next week when they pick against Iowa again they neglect to mention they were dead wrong the week before.
This team is very similar to the ’02 Buckeyes, they won so many games that year by the skin of their teeth but I recall no lack of respect for OSU that season but this year we are getting ripped on each and every ESPN college special.
Could that last second touchdown be the spark that the Iowa offense needs to click on all cylinders? I think it might be just from watching the sidelines run out to celebrate with their team. Like many analyst have said in the last couple weeks, “the scary thing about Iowa is they are not even playing their best football yet, and they are still winning. Just wait until Ricki Stanzi and his offense finds their rythem.”
Great article! Indeed we do need some more style points in order to get some national respect. However, one point I do take is your reference to the ‘fact’ that not one team has scored more than 13 points against the Hawks. I believe the Wolverines scored 28 against the Black and Gold. This was clearly a testament to Iowa’s difficulty in covering the spread offensive. I fear that Iowa’s inability to play against high-scoring powerfully offensive teams, particularly come Bowl time, is a problem that must be addressed. Without a potent offensive capable of big numbers, we might run into trouble. Ohio St. ability to pull big numbers, despite not running a spread could be a problem. Regardless, my beloved Hawks are trucking along and making this a great season despite the many coronary attacks I have had along the way.
So, does anyone else think that Iowa could jump Texas in the BCS standings later in the year? My thinking is they are ranked number 1 in the computer rankings.. and everyone they have played so far get more wins.. AND they beat indiana, Northwestern and Minnesota as badly as they should (couple touchdowns).. AND then beat OSU at columbus.. maybe the pollsters will start to move them up in the AP, Harris, and Coaches.. then because of their #1 rank.. it might just give them just enough of a boost to get them above Texas.. Lot of ifs there.. what does everyone think? Of course.. all we really need to do is cheer our a**es off when Oklahoma State plays Texas this weekend for the upset.. that’d make things a whole lot easier..
GO HAWKS!!!
Iowa is the most under rated team ever. there is no team in the country that could go on the road and win all the games iowa has.. matter of fact stanzi hasnt had a bad year if this was a florida or usc qb they would be screaming heisman for stanzi u get my drift. GO HAWKS.
Great article I am glad to see someone has some brains.
ah yes, the 8N, many an hour raking hay on that bad boy
give’em hell Jon! GO HAWKS!
Jon,
Well said my friend. Hawks deserve the respect and USC should stop whining and start winning if they want to contend.
Also if Ohio Stat or Michigan had our record with our schedule, they would be number 1 in the computer, AP, USA Today….poll.
Now lets forget the polls and take care of Indiana, Northwestern, Ohio State and the gophers.
Jon,
You should have known making a tractor analogy would have sparked a debate. There’s a rule when talking sports; Never mention religion, politics, or tractors.
I was reading this site, but then had to go to the bathroom to lose my lunch. You Hawk bandwagoners make me sick. You were calling for Kirk’s head last year, and now he is a genius. Quit crying about the lack of respect for IA…..Hawks should be damn grateful for the luck they have had all year. I can’t wait for the OSU game when they put 40+ on the Hawks!