ADVERTISEMENT

An excellent article/letter to the national media floating around

If Utah, FSU, Baylor or TCU goes undefeated we will not, SEC you know will get one in even with one loss....oh and do not forget about Norte dame.....it is far from a lock....but I'll take that problem if it comes to it
someone probably addresses this later but Baylor and TCU play each other the last game of the year.

Also, Iowa would be in over a 1 loss anyone if undefeated.
 
I agree that Iowa should probably be ranked a few spots higher, but this article is very Cyclone-esque. Keep winning and the National media will be forced to look into Iowa's success a little more closely.
How can so many of you keep saying these same things.

The article isn't about rankings. It's about narrative. Cliff notes version:

"Iowa's record thus far isn't "weak", it's actually been pretty good. Better than OSU, Baylor, TCU and most of the other top 10 teams"

"Iowa's record the rest of the way is weak. Everyone understands that. But don't get caught up on THAT. Report the facts of what has taken place thus far"
 
What's really cringeworthy is SP using the term "we" when talking about the Hawks. I know every fan base has their dolts, but this really hurts.

Yeah, I drop that one now and then, as well. Even when I do it I cringe afterwards...

I have no problem with almost anyone else doing this. We are all part of the Hawkeye family. I just wish that certain big-fistedslam-dunkingblow-hard posters were not part of it....
 
How can so many of you keep saying these same things.

The article isn't about rankings. It's about narrative. Cliff notes version:

"Iowa's record thus far isn't "weak", it's actually been pretty good. Better than OSU, Baylor, TCU and most of the other top 10 teams"

"Iowa's record the rest of the way is weak. Everyone understands that. But don't get caught up on THAT. Report the facts of what has taken place thus far"
Quit whining, as Pocha said, you sound like a clone. We will be in the top ten after the Maryland game. A lot of perception is about timing, and we haven't had the best timing. We happened to beat NW after they got crushed, we beat Wisconsin after they got beat soundly by Bama, and beat Pitt before anyone knew they were pretty solid. We might be ranked a few spots low but that's what happens when you start behind the eight ball.
 
Herbie has always given love to Iowa and even supported us when no one has. But quite frankly we have sucked and it will catch up if we Keep improving....
In 2012, Herbie called us "the worst team in the Big Ten" when they were talking about Northern Illinois getting a BCS bowl bid. We were bad, but not the worst team in the Big Ten.
 
How can so many of you keep saying these same things.

The article isn't about rankings. It's about narrative. Cliff notes version:

"Iowa's record thus far isn't "weak", it's actually been pretty good. Better than OSU, Baylor, TCU and most of the other top 10 teams"

"Iowa's record the rest of the way is weak. Everyone understands that. But don't get caught up on THAT. Report the facts of what has taken place thus far"

I know, I read the article. I just decided to give my two cents in regards to Iowa's ranking. If Iowa wins out and doesn't make the playoff behind a one-loss team, then you can whine all you want. I just don't see that happening though.
 
I have no problem with almost anyone else doing this. We are all part of the Hawkeye family. I just wish that certain big-fistedslam-dunkingblow-hard posters were not part of it....
I'm 100% positive I have contributed more time, money, and energy to that program than you have. Just curious-did you even go to the University of Iowa?
 
I'm 100% positive I have contributed more time, money, and energy to that program than you have. Just curious-did you even go to the University of Iowa?

You might have 8 or 10 degrees from U of I, have donated 10s of millions of dollars, and attended every Iowa athletic event since 1958, but that wouldn't change the fact that your internet persona is an EMBARRASSMENT... as a human being in general, and as a professed fan of the college program I have loved since I was 7 years old. I'm not saying you have no right to be an Iowa fan, I'm just saying I wish you weren't. I like to live in denial and pretend you are a LoneClone or MichiganManLifer (or whatever his name is) type of poster.
 
I find this whole attitude embarrassing. Nobody in the media dislikes Iowa. Frankly, for the most part they probably don't think about Iowa enough to either like them or dislike them. This is a team that has fared quite poorly in recent years, and with no significant changes to roster and staff there was no reason for anybody to expect anything significant from the team.

Now they've gone 7-0, and they have climbed up the polls to pretty much where any unbiased person would place them. Yes, it's not their fault that they don't have a strong schedule, but by the same token it's not unreasonable for people to withhold judgement on how good they are until they've played a top-10 team. Hell, I would guess that the vast majority of Iowa fans are withholding their judgement on how good the Hawks are.

The most common term used by "the media" to discuss the Hawkeyes is "surprising", and this is completely accurate. Just enjoy the season and stop bitchin' about imagined disrespect.
Well that's not true. Today on the Fox 6-8 sports talk show they talked about our weak remaining schedule and asked if we deserved our ranking as if we played anybody. National talking media gives us no respect.
 
You might have 8 or 10 degrees from U of I, have donated 10s of millions of dollars, and attended every Iowa athletic event since 1958, but that wouldn't change the fact that your internet persona is an EMBARRASSMENT... as a human being in general, and as a professed fan of the college program I have loved since I was 7 years old. I'm not saying you have no right to be an Iowa fan, I'm just saying I wish you weren't. I like to live in denial and pretend you are a LoneClone or MichiganManLifer (or whatever his name is) type of poster.
More of an embarrassment than using roughly half of your whopping 67 posts to attack me? What, exactly, have I done to be an embarrassment to the place where I got my degree from, and have donated time and money since the day I walked into Stanley Hall back all those years? Oh, wait, you didn't go there, so how would you know what Stanley Hall even is? Shocker than you're just a lounge chair Hawk.
 
Thank you for taking the time to read every one of my posts! Your math is a little off, though. I have ripped you 6 or 8 times but that's a long way from half.

More of an embarrassment than using roughly half of your whopping 67 posts to attack me? What, exactly, have I done to be an embarrassment to the place where I got my degree from, and have donated time and money since the day I walked into Stanley Hall back all those years? Oh, wait, you didn't go there, so how would you know what Stanley Hall even is? Shocker than you're just a lounge chair Hawk.
 
More of an embarrassment than using roughly half of your whopping 67 posts to attack me? What, exactly, have I done to be an embarrassment to the place where I got my degree from, and have donated time and money since the day I walked into Stanley Hall back all those years? Oh, wait, you didn't go there, so how would you know what Stanley Hall even is? Shocker than you're just a lounge chair Hawk.

10,000+ posts over 11 years, on sophomoric, meaningless message board. How proud you must be. I hope I can go over 10K posts someday like you. Did you major in 'message board posting' while obtaining your illustrious degree from the U of I? We are all quivering with anticipation to hear more about all you've done for our U of I and it's athletic program. Please don't make us wait!
 
  • Like
Reactions: unsubstantiated
More of an embarrassment than using roughly half of your whopping 67 posts to attack me? What, exactly, have I done to be an embarrassment to the place where I got my degree from, and have donated time and money since the day I walked into Stanley Hall back all those years? Oh, wait, you didn't go there, so how would you know what Stanley Hall even is? Shocker than you're just a lounge chair Hawk.
Shhhhhhhh
 
10,000+ posts over 11 years, on sophomoric, meaningless message board. How proud you must be. I hope I can go over 10K posts someday like you. Did you major in 'message board posting' while obtaining your illustrious degree from the U of I? We are all quivering with anticipation to hear more about all you've done for our U of I and it's athletic program. Please don't make us wait!
With a popping 60 likes....how about that ratio...10,000 to 60
 
  • Like
Reactions: Prophethawk
someone probably addresses this later but Baylor and TCU play each other the last game of the year.

Also, Iowa would be in over a 1 loss anyone if undefeated.
Winner of Baylor/TCU would go if undefeated, undefeated Utah goes, undefeated FSU or Clemson goes, undefeated LSU goes, undefeated Notre Dame goes....does Iowa go in if 4 of thes scenarios happen....a one loss Alabama goes over 13-0 Iowa (don't agree with it but can see that happening)
 
Winner of Baylor/TCU would go if undefeated, undefeated Utah goes, undefeated FSU or Clemson goes, undefeated LSU goes, undefeated Notre Dame goes....does Iowa go in if 4 of thes scenarios happen....a one loss Alabama goes over 13-0 Iowa (don't agree with it but can see that happening)

The likelihood there are that many undefeated teams at the end of the year is so low it's silly. In the 15 years of the BCS only three times you had three undefeated teams from across college football.
 
Not sure if this has been posted, but seems Herbstreit thought it was a great article. The following is his tweet to Miller.

Great article. Angry? Yes. Frustrated? Yes. But, a really well written article. Makes a lot of strong points!
 
The likelihood there are that many undefeated teams at the end of the year is so low it's silly. In the 15 years of the BCS only three times you had three undefeated teams from across college football.
I agree, but what was the likelihood 6 months ago that we would even be having this convo, or the likelihood of Iowa going 13-0.....all I am saying is that it is possible for 3 of these teams to run the table along with a one loss SEC team and that is when this Iowa narrative begins to become a problem.....probably something we wont have to worry about and shoot if Iowa is 13-0 at season end I think we will all survive LOL
 
Yes. Thank you.
:)

I do think that if OSU had 'laid an egg' in the last NCAA playoff, and been dropped in their first game, there would be a lot of debate in taking an 'undefeated B10 team' over a 1-loss team from one of the other Power 5. The same 'Big10 stinks' mantra could prevail, and make it a much dicier proposition for a team like Iowa. But after last year's blowouts by OSU in the playoffs, that's no longer an issue.
 
The likelihood there are that many undefeated teams at the end of the year is so low it's silly. In the 15 years of the BCS only three times you had three undefeated teams from across college football.

With all of the end-of-season conference playoff games now, the likelihood is even lower these days...
 
10,000+ posts over 11 years, on sophomoric, meaningless message board. How proud you must be. I hope I can go over 10K posts someday like you. Did you major in 'message board posting' while obtaining your illustrious degree from the U of I? We are all quivering with anticipation to hear more about all you've done for our U of I and it's athletic program. Please don't make us wait!
What was your previous handle? And, assuming you got the boot and had to come back here with another handle on Saturday, how are you even allowed here?
 
possibility? yes. probably? Not even close.

Your obsession with unlikely scenarios that may screw Iowa is strange.
You mean the same obsession with unlikely scenarios like when I said Iowa would win 10 games all summer and got blasted for and had to defend myself for like 4 months......never did I say that this would happen, just that it could and if it does this national narrative of Iowa will in fact end up biting us.
 
I don't like the whole "we don't care that you don't like us" crap, I don't have any heartache about where we're ranked, but the underlying message is valid.

At this point, our body of work is not bad at all. The schedule we've played to date is not an embarrassment by any stretch and we've emerged undefeated, including beating two teams on the road who were touted as the ones most likely to win the west division. As noted above, our schedule is front loaded and, to date, we've taken care of business. Yet that talking heads have spent an inordinate amount of time discounting what we've done so far based on the fact that we don't play Michigan, MSU, tOSU or PSU this year. While true, it doesn't mean we've played nothing but cupcakes to date and, to the contrary, we've actually played a tougher than average schedule to date.

The real irony is that Iowa having beaten Wiscy, jNW, Ill st. and Pitt is a big part of why they're not viewed as good wins. News flash talking heads: you cannot have a win over an unbeaten team. The best you can have is a win over a one loss team. They spend a lot of effort spinning the current results to match their pre-season assumptions instead of saying "hey, it's college football, you never know for sure who's going to be good or bad, and here's who looks like their trending up and who's trending down."

I'm guessing the article was inspired by the 2nd half of the jNW game where the announcers went on and on about Iowa's weak schedule and basically discounting Iowa's accomplishment so far. They were complimentary of Iowa's line play, but spent a lot of breath discounting the team's accomplishment so far and pre-preemptively discounting any future success. Probably not an issue from a NC perspective because there's a pretty decent chance we get a loss somewhere and, if not, an unbeaten Iowa left out would be unlikely. The issue is the message is sends to potential recruits watching the game, which IMO is "Iowa looks good now, but it's really just faux success and there's little in the schedule going forward to expose them." Honestly, that not-so-hidden message annoys me and is unnecessary. If Bama had played the exact same schedule, with the same results and same schedule going forward, they'd be gushing about how good and unstoppable they were.
 
Say what you want about media coverage or not.. When your name is coming out of the mouths of the motherships (ESPN) analysts or any other National Media outlet, it helps your teams cause. You have High School kids all around the country who are fed the OSU's, LSU's, Bama's of the world all the time so they want to play for them. Winning helps keep you relevant. And winning keeps quality recruits coming in because they like to be part of a program that is relevant, which in turn and in theory make you better at winning. Now there have been plenty of schools that have Names (So called Blue Bloods) Michigan, ND that struggled for a few years, but they were still getting quality recruiting, the coaching is what was hurting them. Now with some like Michigan having a decent coach and their cupboards were hardly bare, they are winning. Iowa will reap benefits from this season in the media and of course in recruiting down the line, but the minute we stumble it will be a quick fall back out of relevance. Keep winning do something with this run and be remembered, if Iowa by some chance makes that golden 4 at the end of the season, that in itself will put us back on the map. We just have to keep winning, look at Oregon. Its gone in a moment, so seize it well you can Hawks!
 
I think it was kind of whiny article. Of course the national media doesn't want to think Iowa is good because they didn't pick Iowa to be good. On the other hand say Wisconsin was ranked at 12, there would be no complaints about schedule from those same talking heads.
 
I find this whole attitude embarrassing. Nobody in the media dislikes Iowa. Frankly, for the most part they probably don't think about Iowa enough to either like them or dislike them. This is a team that has fared quite poorly in recent years, and with no significant changes to roster and staff there was no reason for anybody to expect anything significant from the team.

Now they've gone 7-0, and they have climbed up the polls to pretty much where any unbiased person would place them. Yes, it's not their fault that they don't have a strong schedule, but by the same token it's not unreasonable for people to withhold judgement on how good they are until they've played a top-10 team. Hell, I would guess that the vast majority of Iowa fans are withholding their judgement on how good the Hawks are.

The most common term used by "the media" to discuss the Hawkeyes is "surprising", and this is completely accurate. Just enjoy the season and stop bitchin' about imagined disrespect.

The same with the constant carping about the SEC. It makes people sound like the Clones relative to Iowa.
 
For anyone who feels like the media is biased against Iowa - latest Vegas Insiders top 25, aka they don't care anything about the media:

  1. LSU 6-0
  2. Alabama 6-1
  3. Utah 6-0
  4. Baylor 6-0
  5. TCU 7-0
  6. Ohio St 7-0
  7. Michigan St 7-0
  8. Florida 6-1
  9. Stanford 5-1
  10. Clemson 6-0
  11. Michigan 5-2
  12. Notre Dame 6-1
  13. Florida St 6-0
  14. Texas A&M 5-1
  15. Oklahoma 5-1
  16. Iowa 7-0
  17. Georgia 5-2
  18. Memphis 6-0
  19. Oklahoma St 6-0
  20. California 5-1
  21. Ole Miss 5-2
  22. Texas Tech 5-2
  23. Duke 5-1
  24. Pittsburgh 5-1
  25. Temple 6-0
 
I don't like the whole "we don't care that you don't like us" crap, I don't have any heartache about where we're ranked, but the underlying message is valid.

At this point, our body of work is not bad at all. The schedule we've played to date is not an embarrassment by any stretch and we've emerged undefeated, including beating two teams on the road who were touted as the ones most likely to win the west division. As noted above, our schedule is front loaded and, to date, we've taken care of business. Yet that talking heads have spent an inordinate amount of time discounting what we've done so far based on the fact that we don't play Michigan, MSU, tOSU or PSU this year. While true, it doesn't mean we've played nothing but cupcakes to date and, to the contrary, we've actually played a tougher than average schedule to date.

The real irony is that Iowa having beaten Wiscy, jNW, Ill st. and Pitt is a big part of why they're not viewed as good wins. News flash talking heads: you cannot have a win over an unbeaten team. The best you can have is a win over a one loss team. They spend a lot of effort spinning the current results to match their pre-season assumptions instead of saying "hey, it's college football, you never know for sure who's going to be good or bad, and here's who looks like their trending up and who's trending down."

I'm guessing the article was inspired by the 2nd half of the jNW game where the announcers went on and on about Iowa's weak schedule and basically discounting Iowa's accomplishment so far. They were complimentary of Iowa's line play, but spent a lot of breath discounting the team's accomplishment so far and pre-preemptively discounting any future success. Probably not an issue from a NC perspective because there's a pretty decent chance we get a loss somewhere and, if not, an unbeaten Iowa left out would be unlikely. The issue is the message is sends to potential recruits watching the game, which IMO is "Iowa looks good now, but it's really just faux success and there's little in the schedule going forward to expose them." Honestly, that not-so-hidden message annoys me and is unnecessary. If Bama had played the exact same schedule, with the same results and same schedule going forward, they'd be gushing about how good and unstoppable they were.
This is pretty much what I wanted to say.

The fact is they need to let Iowa PLAY THE GAMES FIRST, before they jump on the schedule.
 
If Iowa goes 13-0 they are in the playoff. Yeah Iowa's schedule is easy for the next 5 but beating OSU/MSU would put them above an ACC champ or a big12 champ. The Big12 will not have a CCG which will hurt them. Who would have a better signature win than Iowa if they beat the #1 team in the nation in the conference title? Wiscy, Pitt, NW could all end up ranked at the end of the year and NEB will likely be a respectable win. So many "if's" and I get that it is fun to discuss but you have to really reach for a situation like that to occur.
 
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT