Now that Iowa is 8-0 and up to No. 10 in the country, the Hawkeyes are officially College Football Playoff contenders. And given that other top fan bases now have to worry about Iowa stealing a Playoff bid, most of the country has hopped on the "Iowa ain't played nobody" train.
5 reasons Iowa’s 2015 resume is better than you think
The Hawkeyes actually have played somebody, and played them pretty well.
Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports
That sounds right at first, because Iowa does play in the Big Ten West and doesn’t play Ohio State or Michigan State in the regular season. And it makes for very funny videos (and Iowa rebuttal videos). It also fits for the remainder of Iowa’s schedule, as its four upcoming opponents — Indiana, Minnesota, Purdue and Nebraska — have combined to win fewer Big Ten games (three) than the Hawkeyes (four).
But up to this point in the season, Iowa actually has played somebody. Many somebodies! Possibly more somebodies than your favorite Playoff contending team. And the Hawkeyes have done it in pretty impressive fashion.
1. Iowa is beating its opponents pretty handily
The biggest answer to the “ain’t played nobody” crowd is that as long as you’re in a power conference, who you play doesn’t matter. How you play does. The biggest gripe with Florida State as a Playoff team last season wasn’t that the Seminoles played a weak schedule. It was that they squeaked by so many bad teams.
Iowa is comfortably beating teams it should beat, and really comfortably beating teams in general, which is tough to do for a team that plays at such a slow pace. The Hawkeyes have won their games by an average of 17.4 points, and they’ve won their four Big Ten games by an average of 14.8 points. They also haven’t let any bad teams hang around, like Michigan State, which barely beat Purdue and Rutgers, or Ohio State, which let Indiana and Maryland hang around.
The last time Iowa started this strong, in 2009, the Hawkeyes needed all kinds of magic to beat some bad teams. This year, they’re wreckin’ fools. That’s not the Iowa you’re used to, but it’s the reality.
More from our Iowa site
More from our Iowa site
2. What have Stanford, Alabama, TCU, Ohio State or Baylor done that Iowa hasn’t?
- Stanford has a loss, and that loss came at Northwestern. The Cardinal lost 16-6 in Evanston. The Hawkeyes won 40-10. Other than that, Stanford has won at USC and at home against UCLA. Those wins really only have weight if they’re based on those teams’ preseason expectations.
- Alabama has a loss. The Crimson Tide did beat Wisconsin more handily than Iowa did, but that was at a neutral site. Iowa won in Madison, while Alabama won’t ever get close to Madison. There was the win at Texas A&M, which, cool — is Texas A&M any good? Georgia is trash, too. And then there’s the near-loss at home to Tennessee.
- TCU squeaked by Minnesota, which likely won’t make a bowl game. The Horned Frogs also squeaked by two other mediocre-to-bad teams: Kansas State and Texas Tech. That’s it.
- Ohio State struggled against Maryland, Indiana and Northern Illinois. Its best win is at home against Penn State, 38-10. Iowa beat a similar Northwestern team 40-10 on the road.
- You know who actually ain’t played nobody? Baylor. The Bears have wins over SMU, Lamar, Rice, Texas Tech, Kansas, West Virginia and Iowa State.
3. Iowa’s opponents are winning
The teams @HawkeyeFootball has beat this year have combined to win 59% of their games. This is the highest % of any undefeated team.
— SportSourceAnalytics (@SportSourceA) October 27, 2015 4. The defense is demolishing opponents
One of the lines from the (again, very funny) video of the dad talking to his kids about Iowa was that the Hawkeyes don't have a championship level defense. That's actually not all that true, though. Iowa ranks ninth nationally, giving up 4.36 yards per play and has the fifth-best total rushing defense in the country. Desmond King, who might be the best cornerback in the country, has seven interceptions already.
Well that’s just because they ain’t played nobody, right!?
Even adjusted for opponent, Iowa’s defense ranks ninth nationally, according to S&P+. This should pass the eye test, given that Wisconsin and Northwestern only scored six and 10, respectively, against the Hawkeyes.
5. The schedule was frontloaded
If Iowa had beaten Maryland, Indiana, Purdue, etc. to get to this point, but still had to win at Wisconsin and Northwestern, the narrative would have been, “OK, beat those teams and you’re legit.” Instead, those games happened when nobody was paying attention to the Hawkeyes.
Would Iowa have gotten more credit for beating a team 7-1 Wisconsin team, on the road, whose only loss was at Alabama, than already having beaten a 7-2 Wisconsin team? Or for blowing out a 6-1 Northwestern team, rather than having beaten a 6-2 Northwestern team?
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Iowa hasn't played an outstanding schedule, and that's certainly not going to change. But if the Hawkeyes go 13-0, with a win in the Big Ten Championship Game over Ohio State or Michigan State, they will deservedly make the College Football Playoff.
With eight wins down and 12-0 firmly in sight, the question shouldn’t be who Iowa has played — it’s whether the Hawkeyes can keep winning. Because if we’re going to preliminarily eliminate power conference teams from the Playoff in Week 9, there are undefeated teams who have a lot more explaining to do than Iowa.
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SB Nation presents: Miami’s miracle and another Iowa win highlight Week 9
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