Iowa football: Few upsets leave little room for Hawks to move in CFP polls

It was a quiet day in college football yesterday, which means despite the win, the Iowa football team isn’t likely to move much in Tuesday’s CFP rankings.

Considering the pandemonium that usually engulfs college football in the month of November, yesterday was a pretty quiet day. There were just two “upsets” on the day with #6 Oregon losing to unranked Arizona State and #25 SMU losing to Navy (who was ranked last week). Despite the Iowa football team taking care of business against a surprisingly decent Illinois squad, this quiet day means the Hawks aren’t likely going to move much in Tuesday’s College Football Playoff rankings.

Sitting at #17 currently, I don’t see them dropping or rising. Nearly every team above the Iowa football team played yesterday (except for Florida) and just two teams lost (#8 Penn State to #2 Ohio State and the aforementioned Oregon).

While I don’t pretend to completely understand how the committee determines rankings, I do know this:

• Overall record matters
• Head to head matters
• Common opponent results matters
• Strength of schedule matters
• Big wins mean more than big losses (this is based on past polls)

For this reason, the #6 ranked Oregon Ducks who are 9-2 are not falling behind the Iowa football team. Moreover, the #8 Penn State Nittany Lions are also not falling behind the Hawks considering they have a better record, they’ve beaten the Hawks already, and their two losses are to two top-10 teams.

That being said, next week bodes well for the Iowa football team to make some movement (as long as they beat Nebraska) as several teams right in front of them have difficult games, plus the Iowa State Cyclones continue to win making Iowa’s September win over them look even better.

The #10 Gophers take on the #12 Badgers, and honestly, I have no idea what outcome I am rooting here from a lets-move-the-Hawks-up perspective. Personally, because of the backlash I got from Gopher fans, I want them to lose, but will a two-loss Gopher team hold off a three-loss Iowa team? Or will a three-loss Badger team with the head to head win over Iowa hold them off?

We’ve got #2 Ohio State versus #13 Michigan. As long as Ohio State takes care of business like I think they will, I believe the committee will have no problems putting the same record Iowa over Michigan despite the loss to Jim Harbaugh’s squad in Ann Arbor.

#15 Auburn has a heated rivalry game with #5 Alabama. I’ve written previously that Auburn and Iowa have very similar resumes so with a fourth loss, there should be no question the Hawks would rise.

#16 Notre Dame gets a battle with Stanford, who has been uncharacteristically bad, but this game is being played in California, and I really don’t trust this Irish squad. A loss here makes it easy for the Hawks to jump them.

So while I don’t anticipate the Iowa football team moving at all this week, there is almost guaranteed to be some movement next week.