Could It Be Crying Time For The Iowa Hawkeyes Like Auburn Had Years Ago?

I'm a football purist. I believe in basic truths and unbroken promises. I believe that when you recruit and train young men and tell them that if they work hard and beat everyone they play, they will be champions.

Only this is the NCAA, division one to be exact. And this year there could be more than one undefeated team that won't be a champion, or even have the opportunity to play for it.

This year's "Jilted Judy" looks like it could be Iowa, a team that could be a conference champion of a major BCS Conference, and still be left out of the "Big Show".

It's happened before. Auburn went 13-0 but had to settle for playing in an also ran bowl. It was called strength of schedule and the SEC was down that year to boot.

The same could be said about both Iowa and the Big Ten this year.

This year the major networks are saying that a one loss SEC would get the nod over an undefeated Big Ten Team. That should say volumes as to low they've sank in the eyes of the top national press box figures.

If it weren't for the big cities and television markets, nobody would care. But this is a big tradition, big alumni, big city and big money conference. They expect respect. Yet there is not intimidation factor for the MAC conference playing a Big Ten School.

Yet the conference still draws huge numbers of fans to the television sets each week, so the minor press people and biased voters keep them high in the polls. It's called ratings over quality.

People outside the Big Ten may be shocked to see how little they're regarded outside of their viewing area. The casual football fan outside the conference may watch from time to time, but only in a NASCAR kind of way.

They just want to see the crash and how bad it will be.

People in the SEC and ACC love each and every loss Michigan endures since Coach Rod wanted Michigan over his own roots almost as much as watch Ohio State flounder like a fish in the desert when they play against a good out of conference school.

It's just that most of the country watches each year as these over rated teams get trounced by good schools from other conferences and then start the preseason polls yet again up near the top.

Until that changes and these schools get standings in the polls based on beating good teams rather than just being media darling, the rest of the country will continue to delight in their demise.

But Iowa is hardly a media darling. And there really is no big market solely for Iowa football. Fans across the country can sympathize and almost pull for the Cinderella story here.

But the reality is Iowa would struggle to be a .500 team in the SEC this year and the major media analysts know that.

They would lose by at least 21 to either Texas, Florida or Alabama so maybe in the long run, this way they can claim martyrdom instead of being this year's Big Ten team that got run over by another out of conference power, and that could just be doing them the biggest favor they'll get this year.