Could The AP Pollsters Be Any More Transparent?

Is anyone else tired of AP writers repetitively playing the “lucky” card to discount Iowa’s accomplishments this year, as if somehow, Iowa being lucky justifies them lowering Iowa’s AP Ranking while the Harris and Coaches poll have raised Iowa’s ranking?

By promoting teams with supposedly superior offenses (Cincinnati , TCU, Boise), that are playing clearly inferior teams with inferior defenses throughout their weaker schedules is anyone concerned like me that the stage is being set for a media-supported theft of a BCS title game away from Iowa—should Iowa finish undefeated, Texas stumble and/or Florida, LSU, and Alabama all finish with one loss.  Isn’t all of this happening enough of a long shot?

BTW, against IU on Saturday, if you add four of Stanzi's five picks and three from Chappell you have seven interceptions against the wind in Kinnick stadium. Even Donahue's rare shanked punt was partially due to him attempting to hit one low and driving into the same 15-20 mph wind. That is the reason why KF deferred after winning the toss (a common practice for most coaches but a rare occurrence for Ferentz) and why Las Vegas usually accounts for the weather and wind speed forecasts when calculating the spread for teams with dangerous vertical passing and prolific spread passing attacks.

IU had one sustained drive for seven points and the rest of their points were generated by giving their very productive offense excellent to very short starting field position. And yet, if you look at the stats, Iowa's Defense dominated throughout and kept Iowa close enough (as usual) going into the fourth quarter, where Iowa's "heavy horse" in the O-Line begins to take its toll on the ground and protecting Stanzi in the passing game.

Not only did Iowa and Stanzi over-come the wind but they pulled away with 28 fourth-quarter points to cover the unbelievable 17.5 spread.  Obviously, the Las Vegas betting line knows something the AP press core doesn’t.

Honestly, if you were at the game, as an Iowa fan (or even a knowledgeable football fan following Iowa this year), the 10 point lead gave you pause but Iowa was having no problem moving the ball and their defense looked dominate as usual except for Indiana's opening drive. The only moment of potential panic from someone cheering for Iowa was just before Sash intercepted and scored his TD…a very scary moment turned into almost instant jubilation. Iowa isn’t the only team that has been scared by this very good Indiana offense, special teams, and pesky defensive line.

One could say Iowa is lucky…with close games there is always an element of luck…after all, the ball is an oblong spheroid…but “lucky” nine times with wins at Madison, East Lansing, and Happy Valley? Has that ever been done before?

This is the first time I’ve seen a team constantly beaten about the head for an opening-day win—by two consecutive blocked field goal attempts—where Iowa’s offensive production could have easily increased the margin by 10-20 points if not for a little opening-day rust and a late fall camp knee injury to Jewel Hampton.

At what point do people say this is just a darn good football team who plays great “Nationally Ranked” defense but has struggled this year playing a sometimes predictable, conservative offense due to a plethora of injuries to its constantly rotating starting O-line and very young inexperienced running backs! A team who plays great against the SEC in bowl games that is benefiting from perhaps the best coaching job in college football this year!