Let's consider the importance of the Michigan game for Iowa

Is it a must-win?

Is beating Michigan an absolute must for this to be a special season for Iowa?

Theoretically? No. The Hawkeyes could lose Saturday, win the rest of their games, and do no worse than share the Big Ten title. Unless Purdue goes 8-0 in the league. Which would be as big a shock as Minnesota (0-2) going 6-2.

Realistically? Yes. This is a must-win for Iowa, as much as coaches despise that term. It's must-win if you're of the opinion this is a team that really ought to be in the hunt for the Big Ten championship in November.

If you believe there can be honor in a 9-3 or  8-4 season even if you were a preseason Top Ten team, then you believe Iowa can shoulder a loss in Ann Arbor. You also may be a little too rational for this discussion.

But the term "great expectations" has been around for 150 years thanks partly to Charles Dickens and partly because great expectations have huge roles in our lives. Were it not for great expectations, we'd all be New York Knicks. Minus their salaries, of course.

Once somebody slaps great expectations on you, those Capital One and Outback bowls can seem like punishments instead of achievements. This is why teams hate them, why coaches try to temper them whenever possible. If you're a college football team and you win two-thirds or three-fourths of your games in a season, you don't want to be considered an underachiever. It just seems wrong.

It's also chased a lot of coaches out of high-profile jobs.

Still, you can't drop this challenging game at Michigan if you are thinking really big. Doing so and then running the homefield three-game gauntlet of Wisconsin, Michigan State and Ohio State (plus sweeping the remaining road games, against Indiana, Northwestern and Minnesota) is asking a lot. A whole lot. A big batch of a whole lot.

And if you don't beat Michigan, do you really have the kind of team that can peel off six straight Big Ten wins? It kind of seems unlikely.

If Iowa loses Saturday on top of having lost at Arizona, it is 0-2 in its two foremost challenges and two most important games to date. No matter how much talent the Hawkeyes have, a defeat could be deflating enough to have quite a carry-over effect.

But win at the Big House, and it ought to be an Iowa team brimming with confidence given how dominant it has been in every game except that weird, special teams-caused affair in Tucson. Win, and you could have a steamroller in motion when the big boys of Wisconsin and Michigan State come to Kinnick the next two weeks.

Every game is important, and the even-keel principle has been a staple of Iowa football.

But Saturday is huge. Yeah, I'm going with huge.