Friday Hawkeyes Reading Room -- Could Rose Bowl have No. 3 vs. No. 4 before it has No. 1 vs. No. 2?

Chris Dufresne of the Los Angeles Times consistently writes some of the most interesting, entertaining writing about college football.

He sees a potential glorious scenario for the Rose Bowl people. Of course, it involves Texas, USC and Iowa not losing another regular-season game. An excerpt from Dufresne's most-recent effort:

If everything goes to form (yeah, right, when has that happened?), the winner of Florida-Alabama in the Southeastern Conference title game would face undefeated Texas of the Big 12 for the BCS championship.

And that might leave No. 3 Iowa vs. No. 4 USC in the Rose Bowl.

The Rose Bowl is Jan. 1. Six days later, the Rose Bowl stadium gets its once-every-four-years turn to host the BCS title game.

Rose Bowl Chief Executive Mitch Dorger knows a lot can and will happen before the BCS' Selection Sunday on Dec. 8.

"There's a lot of football left to be played," Dorger said. "One never knows. The last time we thought we had a lock on Iowa in the game, we watched the Rose Bowl East at the Orange Bowl in Miami."

That was after 2002, when USC and Iowa played near the Atlantic Ocean.

Dufresne went on to offer a different scenario that would make heads explode all over America, and especially in Iowa, if it came to fruition:

A Texas loss at Oklahoma State this weekend opens the door for USC vs. Alabama or Florida for the BCS title.

Then, the Jan. 1 Rose Bowl could pit 10-2 Oregon vs. 12-0 Iowa if the Hawkeyes got passed over for the title game by one-loss USC.

Let's go one step further. Iowa and USC both win. That would leave one team as BCS champion and the other 13-0 Iowa. And Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany couldn't say a word because he's the biggest playoff critic out there.

OK, let's dwell on something a little more realistic. Namely, Saturday's Indiana-Iowa game. The Hawkeyes kind of need to win that one to keep other peoples' fantasies about them intact.

"You're going to see a team rise up."

So said Indiana senior offensive tackle Rodger Saffold this week.

“That will come from practice. That's what you need to do if you want to win. That's how you find out the character of a team. I have all the faith in our team.”

That comes from this Fort Wayne News-Sentinel story. As does this quote from Hoosiers Coach Bill Lynch:

“They're fortunate. They get to play Iowa, an unbeaten team.”

“This is a game,” Saffold says, “you can remember for a lifetime.”

I don't know where he's getting his information, but Ryan O'Halloran of the Washington Times says Iowa's Bryan Bulaga is the No. 2 left tackle in the 2010 draft.

No. 1 is Russell Okung of Oklahoma State.

Things may shift before settling. The draft is almost six months away.

The hook-and-ladder play that got Michigan State 38 yards on a third-and-18 on MSU's only touchdown drive of its 15-13 loss to Iowa? The Spartans work on that every week.

Its success rate for the year was "zero percent," said tight end Brian Linthicum, who caught an 11-yard pass from Kirk Cousins, then lateraled to Blair White, who added 27 more yards before getting run down by Iowa safety Tyler Sash.

Linthicum: "We ran it in the spring game. Our athletic director (Mark Hollis) came up with it, and it worked, but it's never worked since then until Saturday."

"I'm eager to run it again. We run it once a week. We do our two-minute offense every Thursday, run last-minute Hail Mary's and work on lateraling, joking around and stuff like that."

For the full story on the hook-and-ladder from mlive.com, click here.

ESPN.com's Ivan Maisel led a short notes package with this tribute to the Hawkeyes:

No. 4 Iowa, like coach Kirk Ferentz, is low-key and competent. The thing is, the Hawkeyes are competent at everything. Every other top-ranked team has a weakness. That competence will be tested Saturday against Indiana now that two starters, tailback Adam Robinson and guard Dace Richardson, are out until bowl time. “You wonder how many cracks in the dike you can handle,” Ferentz said. “But the players keep playing. They are doing a great job. They can compete.”

Something called The National Championship Issue has a computer. And it has Iowa No. 1. And it gives a rather detailed explanation. It says:

We've got two 8-0 teams, but Iowa is way ahead of Alabama right now. Why? It's not because the computer isn't factoring in their close calls - my program does contain margin of victory.

Iowa has the best win overall, Penn State over Virginia Tech. Things are pretty even for wins 2-4, but then Bama gets into their negative opponents while Iowa still has two wins at opponents in positive territory. Significant advantage Iowa. Overall, Iowa has four wins on the road while Alabama only has two (plus one neutral site win). Big advantage Iowa. Iowa has 1 win by more than 2 TD's, 3 wins by less than 2 TD's, and 4 wins by less than one TD: Alabama has 5 wins by more than 2 TD's, 2 wins by less than 2 TD's, and 1 win by less than one TD. Advantage Bama.

We opened with one of America's best college football writers, and close with another in Blair Kerkhoff of the Kansas City Star.

Kerkhoff writes in this column writes that Iowa and Texas "have a star-wars thing going on now." He adds:

Texas plasters the North champion in the Big 12 title game to stand 13-0. Enough magic dust is left in Iowa's bag to finish a remarkable 12-0. The SEC champion remains undefeated and is No. 1 after the league championship game with the loser dropping to at least fourth.

Who jumps to No. 2 and gets the big prize?

Don't know, but in this three-undefeated scenario - and we're not even considering the possibility of an undefeated Cincinnati here - the BCS once again will get pounded against the ropes.

I don't think anyone can say Iowa fans are looking ahead. The people who are looking ahead -- why would you assume the Hawkeye tight-rope walkers will beat Northwestern, let alone win at Ohio State? -- are all over the U.S.A.

They aren't predictions, mind you, just scenarios. They're fun. And they may change a lot next week.