Where's the respect for the Hawkeyes?

     The Hawks win again! Following a 35-27 win over the Indiana Hoosiers the Hawkeyes are undefeated at 9-0. They are first place in the big ten west and have their eyes on the big ten title game. Despite the fact that they are undefeated, the college football polls have not been favorable to the black and gold.
     The college football board has not been very approving of Iowa this year. Their big problem with Iowa is their strength of schedule. However, the good teams that they have played, Pitt at home and Northwestern on the road, have been victories for the Hawks. Meanwhile, there are teams rated above Iowa who have lost games already this year. For instance, Notre Dame is a very good team. However, they have lost a game already whereas Iowa is an undefeated team in a power five conference with a respectable out of conference schedule. That is not to take anything away from the Irish, but I just don't understand how you could argue that an undefeated power five conference team is barely in the top ten behind other unproven teams.
     What's even worse is that teams like Stanford are considered to be better than Iowa even though Iowa spanked a Northwestern team by 30. The same Wildcat team that beat Stanford. Additionally, Iowa won the Northwestern game with their third string running-back! It has to be seen as impressive when your two top running-backs are out for the week, and you can hand the ball off to your third string back for four touchdowns against a stout defense.
     We'll have to see how the remaining regular season games play out, but if Iowa goes undefeated, and then wins the big ten title game, I don't know how you could keep the Hawkeyes out of the college football playoff.