Do you know Iowa has the weakest schedule going forward

[tedboy78]

Iowa needs to have NW, Wisky, & Pitt have respectable finishes.....as well as win of course....to get some (if any) respect.

As someone said in the game thread, Michigan pounds NW in Ann Arbor and the Wolverines are world beaters, Iowa pounds them in Evanston = NW sucks and Iowa has the easiest schedule in the history of college football.

Lotsa shades of 2009 going on here

This has been a theme for years now. Last week Michigan was all that and a bag of chips for defeating NW. Now that the Hawks have won it's "what's wrong with NW"? ESPN even said it's good for college football that Michigan is back and, as you know, what's good for college football is good for ESPN. Let the hype machine begin. I will give credit to Mark May and Mack Brown for saying this Iowa team is for real. A healthy CJB and we drop 60 on them today.

 

[HawkLogic]

With conference championship, Iowa will have to play somebody pretty good, so soft schedule won't matter that much.

 

[mthawkeyes]

With conference championship, Iowa will have to play somebody pretty good, so soft schedule won't matter that much.

If rankings were based on SOS to date, Iowa would be #2 among undefeated teams, trailing only Utah. All the analysts talking about Iowa's remaining schedule and how weak it is have totally ignored how strong Iowa's schedule through seven games has been.

 

[swihawkeye]

None of that matters to me... the hawks need to keep beating whoever steps on the field and things will take care of themselves.

 

[St. Louis Hawk]

I assume the computers will like that we beat Northwestern who beat Stanford and Duke (Duke is 5-1 and ranked #25). We also beat Pitt who hasn't lost since and will likely now be ranked. We beat Wisconsin who is 5-2 and only other loss is Alabama and will likely be ranked again soon. Before long it won't surprise me if the computers have us ranked above the humans.

Agreed, other than the ESPN computer ranking. We are No. 40 in ESPN FPI, behind several teams with three and FOUR losses. I seriously don't know how you program a computer to rank a four loss team over an undefeated Power 5 team that has beat a 5-1 Power 5 team and two Power 5 ranked teams (both on the road) unless there is some conference bias.

 

[pink shizzle]

We all want Iowa to do well and we defend them, but if Michigan or another BIG team had our schedule many/most of us would be saying they have a terribly weak schedule.

 

[hawks_82]

The most important point is you can only win the games against the teams on your schedule. But for those of you trying to state the schedule is not weak, stop kidding yourself. Iowa doesn't play Ohio State, Michigan State, & Michigan, arguably the 3 best teams in the conference. Iowa also doesn't play Penn State, who is 5-1 going into tonights game. I would say Iowa doesn't play a very good to great team all year. I would call Pitt and Wisconsin above average to good. That's about it, which is horrible for a Power 5 conference.

This is such crap. Nothing but preseason rankings and overhype over something that hasn't been done in 20 years is why people think these are the best 3 teams

Michigan State? They are getting clout from preseason and beating a waaaaaay overrated oregon
Ohio State? Looks like a good, potentially great team. But again, if they weren't #1 to start the year who knows what people think

Michigan is getting way too much credit for shutting out Maryland (lol) a BYU team without their two best players, and a Northwestern team whose offense is anemic. Also getting pull from Utah, who, you guessed it, is getting credit for beating a terrible Oregon team

I have not seen anything that suggests those three are head and shoulders above Iowa, if they are above Iowa at all

 

[BubsFinn]

This has been a theme for years now. Last week Michigan was all that and a bag of chips for defeating NW. Now that the Hawks have won it's "what's wrong with NW"? ESPN even said it's good for college football that Michigan is back and, as you know, what's good for college football is good for ESPN. Let the hype machine begin. I will give credit to Mark May and Mack Brown for saying this Iowa team is for real. A healthy CJB and we drop 60 on them today.

This kind of statement always drives me nuts. College football will be just fine if Michigan sucks. College football will be just fine if Notre Dame, Penn State, USC, Nebraska, Texas, and anyone else sucks. The sport is bigger than any of the teams. A lot bigger. For every slumping Michigan out there, there’s a surging Baylor. For every underperforming Oregon, there’s an over achieving Utah. College football doesn’t need its traditional powers to dominate.

 

[Servbot24]

The weak regular season schedule is true and a valid point. We'll have to beat MSU or OSU at the end though, which is a win that should convince everyone.

 

[Phenomenally Frantastic]

The most important point is you can only win the games against the teams on your schedule. But for those of you trying to state the schedule is not weak, stop kidding yourself. Iowa doesn't play Ohio State, Michigan State, & Michigan, arguably the 3 best teams in the conference. Iowa also doesn't play Penn State, who is 5-1 going into tonights game. I would say Iowa doesn't play a very good to great team all year. I would call Pitt and Wisconsin above average to good. That's about it, which is horrible for a Power 5 conference.

Iowa is better than MSU & Michigan. I really believe that.

 

[rclui57]

It is always interesting to hear the experts tell us about the strength or weakness of the schedule. Before the season we had enough of those experts on this Board. The only source I know that does objective analysis (statistical) is Sagarin and last week Sagarin had Iowa's strength of schedule to be in the 20s if I recall correctly.

Just win the next game, then the next and all will be well.

 

[mthawkeyes]

The weak regular season schedule is true and a valid point. We'll have to beat MSU or OSU at the end though, which is a win that should convince everyone.

I posted another thread showing opponents' records of other undefeated teams. If it's a valid point for Iowa, it's a valid point for everyone else besides Utah and Florida.

 

[herecomethehawkeyes]

With conference championship, Iowa will have to play somebody pretty good, so soft schedule won't matter that much.

will the narrative all of a sudden become how the B1G was really not that g

This is such crap. Nothing but preseason rankings and overhype over something that hasn't been done in 20 years is why people think these are the best 3 teams

Michigan State? They are getting clout from preseason and beating a waaaaaay overrated oregon
Ohio State? Looks like a good, potentially great team. But again, if they weren't #1 to start the year who knows what people think

Michigan is getting way too much credit for shutting out Maryland (lol) a BYU team without their two best players, and a Northwestern team whose offense is anemic. Also getting pull from Utah, who, you guessed it, is getting credit for beating a terrible Oregon team

I have not seen anything that suggests those three are head and shoulders above Iowa, if they are above Iowa at all

I always thought that the first rankings of any kind shouldn't come until this weekends slate of games are over. Get to mid october, see where the teams stack up and then rank em based on that. Nothing but results on the field as well as the results of the teams you play.

 

[mthawkeyes]

March-August: AP writers spend much of offseason complaining about teams that play weak schedules.
October: AP writers vote Baylor and TCU #2 and #3 despite their playing extremely weak schedules.

 

[EvilMonkeyInTheCloset]

We've seen a lot of talk about Iowa's remaining schedule but what about another West contender, Wisconsin?

at Illinois
Rutgers
at Maryland
Northwestern
at Minnesota

Here's to hoping maybe Bucky takes a stumble somewhere in that murderer's row of a remaining slate.

 

[Joes Place]

Illinois State 5-1 (obviously FCS, but not bad)
Iowa State 2-3; 2-4 after today
Pittsburgh 5-1
North Texas 0-6
Wisconsin 5-2
Illinois 4-2
Northwestern 5-2

Iowa's opponents will be 21-18 after today. They are 21-11 against teams that aren't Iowa. Iowa has nothing to apologize for.

FWIW, statistically, North Texas is an outlier that substantially skews the numbers; remove that one bad team, and Iowa's opponents per your list are now 26-12.

Or 26-5 excluding their losses to Iowa. Even including the statistical outlier, North Texas, they'd still be 26-11.