ESPN addresses how Iowa can make the 2023 College Football Playoff
Everyone loves a good Cinderella story. It is captivating, it provides hope for every team, it creates drama.
Saint Peter’s Elite 8 run in the 2022 NCAA Tournament. TCU’s run to this past season’s College Football Playoff national championship game against Georgia. The Iowa Hawkeyes’ march to the College Football Playoff in 2023?
ESPN has laid out the path and what it will take for each top 25 team to make the College Football Playoff next season. One team among them coming in at No. 25 in their rankings is the Hawkeyes.
Iowa came tantalizingly close nearly eight years ago, only to see L.J. Scott’s 1-yard touchdown run for Michigan State with 27 seconds left in the 2015 Big Ten championship game deny it the opportunity of parlaying a 13-0 season into a College Football Playoff appearance. In the Big Ten West, it’s all about who you don’t play in your crossovers in the East. The Hawkeyes’ 2023 schedule doesn’t have Michigan or Ohio State on it, so that’s a good start in terms of building a potential one-loss or undefeated season.
On the field, the offense simply has to be better to complement and support a defense that is usually strong year in and year out. The Hawkeyes’ offense struggled extensively on the way to finishing last in the Big Ten (251.6 YPG). A lot will be asked of former Michigan quarterback Cade McNamara immediately with road games at Iowa State (Sept. 9) and Penn State (Sept. 23) within the season’s first month. — Baumgartner, ESPN.
Making the playoff would be uncharted territory for Iowa, but, as stated, they have been close. The talent on offense is improved on paper, the defense is reloading, and there is a sense of “now or never” in Iowa City for this program.
Avoiding the two biggest threats to their path, Ohio State and Michigan, during the regular season boosts their hopes immensely. Should Iowa make the Big Ten Championship game, one of those two likely await a date to go to the playoff. That is unless Penn State wakes up and takes the Big Ten East. But prior to that, the Hawkeyes have an early season date in Happy Valley to settle this matchup.
Among the Big Ten, the teams given a path to the playoff include No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Michigan and No. 6 Penn State, all on the other side of the conference. Could ESPN be inferring that the Hawkeyes are the favorite in the Big Ten West?
More!
ESPN College Gameday headed to Iowa City for Iowa versus Indiana on Feb. 26
Lukas Van Ness goes top 20 in latest ESPN 2023 NFL mock draft
Sharing is caring! Iowa's Caitlin Clark 'assists' her way into exclusive record book
Contact/Follow us @HawkeyesWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Iowa news, notes, and opinions.
Follow Riley on Twitter: @rileydonald7
