How High Will Iowa Football Land in the First CFP Rankings?

Sitting with a 6-2 record, the Iowa Hawkeyes are back on track for some big goals this season. The Hawkeyes are bowl-eligible, of course, but that's no shock. Kirk Ferentz has done that in 25 of the last 26 seasons.

Iowa is dreaming bigger. If the Hawkeyes can win out, my gut tells me there is going to be a rather difficult time snubbing a 10-2 Iowa from the College Football Playoff field. We are about to find out how much work Iowa has to do, as the first CFP rankings will be released this week.

Iowa Football's Rankings

After falling out of the rankings last weekend, the Hawkeyes' resurgent 30-0 win over Wisconsin has put them firmly back inside the top 25 of both polls, and the College Football Playoff rankings are sure to follow suit.

AP Top 25

The AP Top 25 was rather unkind to Iowa last weekend, booting them from the rankings. This week, Iowa jumped up five spots and is sitting at No. 21 in the country. One quirk of the polls is that Iowa sits between Boise State and New Mexico, the two Group of Six CFP contenders.

Coaches Poll

The Coaches Poll has seemed to be kinder to Iowa all season. Last week, Iowa slipped to No. 24, but remained ranked. This week, Iowa gets a four-spot boost by the coaches and is coming in at No. 20 in the country. Unlike the AP Top 25, Iowa is ahead of the two G6 contenders.

Predicting Iowa Football's CFP Ranking

The first College Football Playoff rankings come out this week, on Tuesday, November 3, at 6 p.m. CT in a special release show on ESPN. The Hawkeyes are going to rank higher here than they did in the Coaches Poll and AP Top 25. I think the committee is going to rank Iowa higher than most.

The committee is going to look a layer deeper than the voters do, and I firmly believe that helps Iowa, which has some strong data points. There is a logjam of 6-2 teams, so let's dig into where Iowa sits among them.

Alabama, Texas, Ohio State, Ole Miss, LSU, Tennessee, Houston, USC, and Missouri are all 6-2, as is Iowa, but sit above them in the rankings. Are all of those teams better than Iowa? I think there are cases to be made to slide the Hawkeyes over Houston, USC, and Missouri.

So, where does that put Iowa in the first CFP rankings? I'm taking Iowa to make it into the top 20 of the initial CFP rankings, creating a scenario where Iowa is staring down a chance to make the College Football Playoff if they win out. Give me the Hawkeyes at No. 18 in the CFP rankings.

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