Why this Saturday REALLY REALLY REALLY Matters

ssckelley said:
At 6 wins Iowa is not guaranteed a bowl bid. The Big Ten has 8 bowl games and currently 8 teams bowl eligible. According to NCAA rules no bowl can select a 6 win team over a 7 win team and there are still 10 teams that can get to 7 wins. If either Purdue or Northwestern win out then they would get a bowl bid before a 6 win Iowa. I realize it is an unlikely scenario but it still exists. The at large bowls will end up getting filled with 7 win Sun Belt & 7 win MAC teams.

The big reason Iowa needs that 7th win is because a bowl can take a 7 win Iowa team over an 8 win Penn State, Illinois, or MSU. In that situation I think Iowa would be the 5th team taken which puts them in the Gator Bowl playing the SEC.
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HN should be talking about the opportunity to go to the conference championship, not debating whether 6 games will get a bowl game invite. MSU, Purdon't and Nebraska are all winnable games. Somebody needs to break out the Hawk-aide :)
 
One game at a time Enginerd, one game at a time. If Iowa can secure the 7th then we can start talking about securing the 8th. ;)
 
Enginerd said:
HN should be talking about the opportunity to go to the conference championship, not debating whether 6 games will get a bowl game invite. MSU, Purdon't and Nebraska are all winnable games. Somebody needs to break out the Hawk-aide :)
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Haha, agree. I tried earlier but these two words must've gotten buried:

ROSE BOWL!

It's a long shot, but I've seen worse Big Ten teams win out to go to Pasadena (i.e. 2007 Illinois).
 
I would argue it will be our toughest game of the year also. Second straight 13th ranked opponent from Michigan...would make a nice pair of bookend victories over ranked teams. And keep that MSU losing streak going at Kinnick.

It is very big. Go Hawks!!
 
Great post. Couldn't agree more. A couple of thoughts:

1. I don't think we have played our best game yet. Pieces seem to be coming together, but no great performance for 4 quarters. Perhaps Saturday is that day.

2. MSU has an excellent team, but this is one of the few teams we play this year without a tremendously mobile QB. Cousins is more of a pocket passer. Hopefully Norm and the defense will have a good scheme to contain him.

The win over Michigan really opened things up for us to have a memorable season. I think it is really up to the defense - we have to have our best game of the year.
 
As a Hawk fan, what make's me most "content", is that we are relevant at the end of the year. [fwiw - "content" and "happiest" are too different ideals]. As Bruuuce so pointedly alluded ...to be relevant in the Nebby game on (Hawkeye)-Black Friday, we need to win THIS game, THIS week. Next week is next week. We have had good luck over the years with a MSU team that seems to always be solidly built and prepared, and generally plays us very tough. But make no mistake, this is THE game that we NEED to win. It is in our house. We need to be ready to go and fired up to play or best game yet. As Chosen said, we have yet to put on a great performance for 4 quarters. Let 's hope this may be the week.
 
ColoradoHAWKEYE said:
As a Hawk fan, what make's me most "content", is that we are relevant at the end of the year. [fwiw - "content" and "happiest" are too different ideals]. As Bruuuce so pointedly alluded ...to be relevant in the Nebby game on (Hawkeye)-Black Friday, we need to win THIS game, THIS week. Next week is next week. We have had good luck over the years with a MSU team that seems to always be solidly built and prepared, and generally plays us very tough. But make no mistake, this is THE game that we NEED to win. It is in our house. We need to be ready to go and fired up to play or best game yet. As Chosen said, we have yet to put on a great performance for 4 quarters. Let 's hope this may be the week.
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So, are you going? I find it hard to believe you can't find a travel-mate!
 
ColoradoHAWKEYE said:
As a Hawk fan, what make's me most "content", is that we are relevant at the end of the year. [fwiw - "content" and "happiest" are too different ideals]. As Bruuuce so pointedly alluded ...to be relevant in the Nebby game on (Hawkeye)-Black Friday, we need to win THIS game, THIS week. Next week is next week. We have had good luck over the years with a MSU team that seems to always be solidly built and prepared, and generally plays us very tough. But make no mistake, this is THE game that we NEED to win. It is in our house. We need to be ready to go and fired up to play or best game yet. As Chosen said, we have yet to put on a great performance for 4 quarters. Let 's hope this may be the week.
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Exactly. Whether we go into the Nebraska game in a given year at 7-0 or 4-3 in Big Ten play, this is about all we can hope for: win that game and go to Indy. Win Saturday and we're a Purdue W away from making that happen, Minnesota loss notwithstanding.

It is possible in future to have a 2-game lead going into Nebraska week and have the Indy trip wrapped up. I'm going to bet that those seasons are rare for any school in any conference/division.

Only in football do you have 'a lot of season' left with only three games to go. Beating MSU doesn't wrap anything up, but a loss certainly excludes the top-end outcomes.
 
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