Iowa football: Why Ohio State is most important team in B1G to Hawks

As much as I hate to admit it, the Ohio State Buckeyes might be the most important B1G team to the Iowa football team’s success this season.

I don’t like it any more than you probably do, but Ohio State is quite essential to the success of the Iowa football team this season, and here’s why.

Every year, the Iowa football team plays every team in the Big Ten West and they get three crossover games. This year’s games are Rutgers, Michigan, and Penn State. Not the easiest slate, but not the worst schedule I’ve seen considering we don’t have to take on the Ohio State Buckeyes right now.

I’m not saying it’s impossible, but I’m saying the Buckeyes look real good right now, and thankfully, we don’t need to worry about them during the regular season.

Wisconsin and Nebraska do though.

The Buckeyes take on Nebraska in a few moments tonight, and you better believe I will be pulling for the Buckeyes to crush the Cornhuskers for two reasons. First, it helps the Hawks as it would put a conference loss on Nebraska’s record and second because I hate the Huskers.

I’m not super worried about Nebraska being a contender in the Big Ten West this year, but it would be nice to ensure it’s not possible.

Wisconsin, on the other hand, looks really good, despite a tough game against Northwestern today. The Badgers, however, have to travel to Columbus to take on Ohio State in a few weeks, and this is a prime opportunity for Ohio State to show everyone they are not to be messed with in 2019. It’s also a prime opportunity to give the Badgers their first conference loss of the season.

If the Iowa football team goes undefeated and runs through their schedule, then this ultimately doesn’t matter, but if they suffer a setback, say next week in Michigan, then a Wisconsin loss becomes much more important. Yes, there are tiebreakers with head to head and all of that, but the more conference losses Wisconsin and Nebraska have, the better.

Finally, if Ohio State runs the table, and the Iowa football team wins the West, they will be meeting for a showdown in Indianapolis for the Big Ten Championship. A win here over the Buckeyes would, without a doubt, catapult an undefeated Iowa football team or even a one-loss Iowa football team into their first-ever College Football Playoff appearance.

So basically, the Buckeyes can really help the Hawks make the Big Ten Championship, and they would provide the Hawks a great opponent to push them into the College Football Playoffs if they were to meet in the Big Ten Championship.