Nobody Knows How to Correctly Rank Iowa Football

Preseason rankings are a funny thing. Do they mean a whole heck of a lot? Not really in the grand scheme of things with 12-game slates staring us down.

Are they irrelevant? Not quite.

They do provide some unconscious bias. Teams are ranked on previous season's success, transfer portal hype, and sometimes, teams get ranked based simply on having a big brand name.

Those are all questions swirling around the Iowa Hawkeyes, a team nobody is quite sure where to rank as the 2026 season approaches.

Where Should Iowa Football Actually Be Ranked?

The fact that the Iowa Hawkeyes are ranked isn't the surprising thing, but the thing of note is how cautious everyone feels about Iowa's spot in the polls.

The Coaches Poll slotted Iowa in at No. 22 in the country, which has its own reasons for debate. The selections of a few teams ahead of Iowa, with large questions of their own, left something to be desired, to say it nicely.

Another outlet, CBS Sports, has slotted Iowa a touch higher, with the Hawkeyes coming in at No. 21 in the preseason rankings of all 138 FBS programs.

Like the Coaches Poll, the ranking is a very safe, conservative play that isn't getting the same treatment as some other programs that find themselves ranked.

Where should Iowa be ranked?

The problem with these rankings is that the criteria are anything but clear. There is a lack of clarity in what these rankings stem from.

Are we ranking teams based upon what is expected of them in 2026? If that's the case, Iowa's gigantic question mark, as much as I hate to say it, presents a case to leave Iowa out of any top 25 polls until they prove they can play offense.

It's harsh, but shouldn't rankings be based on what we expect from teams this upcoming season? If that's the case, having no idea what to expect from Iowa's quarterback is worthy of dropping them out of the polls.

If we go off this criterion, it explains ranking Ohio State, Oregon, Notre Dame, LSU, and Ole Miss. All of them enter the year with loaded rosters that are expected to be at the top of the sport.

Or are we ranking teams based upon what they did last year? That's the case we see with Indiana, Texas Tech, and Miami. All of them are loaded like the aforementioned teams, but have huge questions at the quarterback spot.

Their success last year seems to be buying them a ranking. In this case, Iowa has to be higher than No. 21, right? Iowa went 9-4 and capped it off against a Vanderbilt team that came out of the SEC with a 10-2 regular-season record.

Iowa ended the year with one of the highest-quality wins of any team in the Big Ten, aside from the national champion Hoosiers.

Riley Donald's Ranking of Iowa

Iowa should be ranked. This program has a higher floor than 90% of programs in America and has consistently proven it can win eight or nine games each year. That's ranking-worthy.

Where Iowa should be ranked is a different story. I put Iowa higher in the No. 18 range. Commonly ahead of Iowa are Michigan and Penn State, two teams undergoing a ton of change. Is Penn State really going to translate Big 12 talent into a top Big Ten team? Maybe, but it's unproven.

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