What would you all say is the football equivalent of a basketball BTT title?

HaydenHawk56

Well-Known Member
I think it is fair to say, winning the Big Ten Tournament is Fran's biggest singular accomplishment (besides the rebuild and NCAA tourney appearances to date). I think we can finally say Fran has a significant accomplishment (at least in conference) at Iowa.

I got thinking what would be the football equivalent of a basketball tournament title? I think it certainly feels better than a mid-tier bowl win (against most teams). I don't think it feels as great as winning the Big Ten Title game in football. I'm also not sure I can place it as high a New Years Six win either.

For that matter, look at basketball itself. The regular season title is probably still greater, but you want to be playing your best basketball right now....which Iowa is doing....which could be just as important as what you do in the regular season....but you do need to do well in the regular season to influence seating in the BTT and NCAAs.

Lastly, if Iowa does not make the Sweet 16, does this BTT title lose a little bit of luster? I think it slightly would (especially a 1st round clunker), but it would be another productive step in the right direction for Fran and the program.

BTW, I think Iowa gets the Sweet 16 and depending on what happens above, they could get more. All you want to do is give yourself a chance at that point.
 
Great question. A Citrus Bowl win to me. Sweet 16 would be like a New Years Day 6 not in Pasadena. A Final Four is a Rose Bowl win.
 
Great question. A Citrus Bowl win to me. Sweet 16 would be like a New Years Day 6 not in Pasadena. A Final Four is a Rose Bowl win.
I could buy that.....a A Citrus Bowl win......I maybe did not yell as loud as the Drew Tate TD.....but I still was pretty loud today. They both feel really good.
 
Winning the division. You get a trophy, and you are the champs...kind of. In FB, you get to go on to win the conference championship. Awesome, not the conference championship. In BB, it's not the "real" championship (unless you're Iowa State). Both awesome, but not the "big one".

FTR, I'm a much bigger FB fan than BB fan, so I'm sure many won't agree that they are equal and I completely understand that.
 
I think in this particular year Iowa’s victory today means we are right now, end of the season, prior to the Dance, the best team in the BT.
 
Football. Win the Division and play for all the marbles. Lose in the championship game and then win a very good bowl game. In reality, I don’t really know if a legit comparison is available.
 
Honestly the Big 10 tournament really doesn't mean much. You're still not Big 10 Champs and it's not even the important tournament. It makes it even less of a big deal since the main tournament is played the very next week. That said, there really isn't anything more exciting in any sport than winning 4 games in 4 consecutive days.
 
Honestly the Big 10 tournament really doesn't mean much. You're still not Big 10 Champs and it's not even the important tournament. It makes it even less of a big deal since the main tournament is played the very next week. That said, there really isn't anything more exciting in any sport than winning 4 games in 4 consecutive days.

Yeah there isn't a good comparison to football.

But it's a heck of a lot of fun.
 
I agree that there is not a good comparator. What I experienced this weekend there is nothing like it in football. For four days, I was cancelling plans, moving things around, going online, and nervously watching 9ish hours of unbelievable basketball. When it was over, I told my son I have not been this happy about sports since the Chiefs won the Super Bowl. Winning something, hoisting a trophy, celebrating, its beyond special.

In college basketball, there are three cool things you can do: win the conference regular season, win the conference tourney, make a deep NCAA tourney run. Certainly winning a regular season title is a more significant achievement, but personally, I would not trade places with boring old Wisconsin right now. The last four days has been amazing.

In football, you can win the division, win the conference title, or win a bowl game of varying significant. I guess what we just did is probably the functional equivalent of winning a good bowl game. You win, you celebrate, the fans are really happy, but its meaning is more in how the season as a whole is perceived as opposed to anything of actual significance.
 
You know it was a really good tournament run when the worst thing that happened was a walkon banking in a deep 3.
 

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