Iowa Hawkeyes Fall In College Football Rankings

College football is pretty unique in how the best teams in the country are decided and/or ranked. In just about every sport in the world, the more you win, the higher your respective rank would be. In college football, there are two rankings that are generally used to decide how good each team is.

How Are College Football Rankings Decided?

There are 2 college football ranking systems that most fans will see on tv or read about online. There is the Associated Press Poll and the Coaches Poll. Broadcasters and writers will vote for teams for the AP poll and college football coaches would obviously vote in the coaches poll.

There has only been 1 week of college football so far in the 2023 season and after week 1, the Hawkeyes now find themselves outside of the top 25.

Before the Hawkeye's first game of the season, they were officially ranked the 25th best team in the country. Despite beating Utah State 24-14, the Hawkeyes have slipped in the national rankings. College football rankings are unique in the sports world for multiple reasons.

Why Did The Hawkeyes Fall Out Of The Top 25?

There are 133 Division 1-A college football programs. That's a massive amount of teams that are ranked throughout a college football season. When there are this many teams for coaches and writers to sort through, sometimes its not just that you win each week but it's how you win each week.

When a team like the Hawkeyes, that could/should compete for a Big 10 championship, faces a team that was predicted to finish 8th in the Mountain West division, according to Utah State Aggies News, and doesn't dominate...it doesn't sway very many writers and coaches to rank your team very high. Despite having won the game, the Hawks are currently on the outside looking in after week 1.

The Hawkeyes were predicted by many sports outlets to win that game by 20+ points. There were multiple gambling sites that predicted the Hawkeyes would win by 23.5 points.

Does This Matter?

Is it really that big of a deal that after week 1 the Hawkeyes find themselves out of the top 25? Not really. There is basically and entire season left to play and there is plenty of time for the team to jump back into the top 25. Is it possible this could come back to bite them down the road? Maybe. If there's a close race towards the end of the season, it's possible coaches and writers will look back on this game and possibly rank a team 1 spot ahead of Iowa. This could heavily impact which bowl game the Hawkeyes could play in.

For the most part, as long as the Hawkeyes take care of business the rest of the season and continue to win, they should be just fine.

This Saturday (September 9) is one of the best days in college sports and surely one of the best sporting events in the state of Iowa. The Hawkeyes travel to Iowa State and will take on the Cyclones at 2:30 pm. The Cyclones handled business in week 1, defeating the UNI Panthers 30-9.