One of the most controversial teams involved in the running for a College Football Playoffs spot during this 2015 season is obviously the Iowa football Hawkeyes. While they may be an unblemished 12-0 at the conclusion of their game against Nebraska, there are teams more worthy of competing in the playoffs -- even if they have a loss this year. Read on to see the five biggest reasons why the Hawkeyes don't deserve one of the four CFP seeds this season.
5. Lack of Signature Victories
The College Football Playoff rankings are so subjective, and it's relatively unknown what these voters are thinking when they make choices. Currently, Clemson (11-0), Alabama (10-1), Oklahoma (10-1) and Iowa (12-0) occupy the top four seeds. The Tigers have wins against Notre Dame, Georgia Tech and Florida State. The Crimson Tide beat LSU when they were ranked No. 1 in the nation, and also have big victories over Georgia, Tennessee and Mississippi Sate. The Sooners overcame Tennessee, Baylor and TCU.
Who has Iowa beat? Northwestern and...?
No one.
4. Fundamentals Only Get You So Far Against Elite Competition
Iowa's greatest compliments so far this year from the national media is that they have solid fundamentals and take care of the football.
You know what that means when analysts are saying that about your football team? That the team is lacking talent.
Against better competition, I don't know that it'd be so easy for them to play so soundly and conservatively, and still be able to find a way to win.
3. C.J. Beathard Isn't a Good Enough Playmaker at QB
There have been a couple of examples of other teams in recent college football history where a team won the national championship without a fantastic quarterback, but it isn't the norm. For Iowa, they have a guy who protects the ball and can even move a little bit, but he doesn't have a big arm and hasn't had too many explosive plays this year -- especially considering Iowa's current standing. He simply doesn't inspire the same kind of confidence that you get from some of the teams that are right below Iowa in the rankings.
2. Michigan State and Notre Dame are Much Better
Two of those teams that inspire more confidence with their QB include Michigan State and Notre Dame -- and they too have much more impressive wins on their resume than Iowa. These teams have arguably just as good of defenses as the Hawkeyes, but also have some better weapons on the outside for QBs Connor Cook (MSU) and DeShone Kizer (ND) to work with.
While they each have one loss, their wins and overall talent on paper look much more impressive than Iowa's.
1. Had One of the Weakest Schedules of a Power 5 Team in All of FBS
Finally, and many of the former points touched on this, the Hawkeyes simply had one of the easiest schedules for a Power 5 team that I've ever seen. They played only one team that's currently ranked -- Northwestern -- and missed pretty much every big-name school in the Big 10, such as Michigan, MSU and Ohio State. Out of the eight Big Ten teams they played, only two have an above-.500 record right now.
Plain and simple, with as subjective and mysterious as these rankings can be sometimes, I don't know how so many in the media are making the argument that this team deserves their current placement.
Thankfully, the conference championship game against most likely Michigan State will knock them out and boost the Spartans into that fourth spot.
Sorry, Iowa fans. You had a good year -- but not that good.
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