The Hlist, Week 7: Iowa could go 10 weeks without playing a ranked team

Three days on the road for a three-hour football game. I wouldn't mind as much had it been in, say, Chicago. But the Big Ten doesn't have a lot of Chicagos, and Lansing, Mich., certainly isn't one. Anyway ...

1. Blank Slate: We all know the Big Ten is sorely lacking in dynamic football teams this year, but a Sunday tweet from Jon Miller of Hawkeyenation.com brought it home for me.

Then I realized the Hawkeyes have yet to play a team that was ranked at the time they played that team. Michigan State had a few weeks in the polls before falling out. Iowa State had a one-week stay in the coaches' poll before losing 27-21 to Kansas State Saturday. Future opponents Northwestern and Nebraska have been ranked, but both will have to do some serious winning to be in the polls when they meet Iowa.

The Hawkeyes drew a softer league-schedule last year and this. No Ohio State (unbeaten and No. 7 in the AP poll). No Wisconsin, which may get back into the Top 25 as the season progresses. I expect it to return to the rankings after two more games, home wins over Minnesota and Michigan State.

But the high-and-mighty Legends Division? Michigan State had people bamboozled after a season-opening 17-13 win over Boise State, which isn't the Boise State of previous years though it is 5-1.

MSU quarterback Andrew Maxwell was every bit as hard to watch as Iowa's James Vandenberg Saturday, and maybe even a little more.

For the feel-good Iowa got out of the 19-16 double-overtime victory over the Spartans in East Lansing, it wasn't a game that felt good to watch. It required a palate-cleanser, and I got it Saturday night in South Carolina-LSU. You can have a defense-dominated game and still be interesting if athletes are doing athletic things.

Here's hoping a better brand of ball is on display in Iowa's final six games. It takes two teams to make that kind of tango.

By the way, not counting bowl games, Iowa played three ranked teams in 2011, five in 2010, two in 2009, one in 2008, and two in 2007.

To add to the Big Ten's lost half-season, not a single club from that conference was in the first BCS standings of the season that were released Sunday night. Seven Big 12 teams, including Iowa State at 24th, are in the BCS' Top 25. Three teams from the Big East are, as well. So are seven from the SEC, four from the Pac-12, two from the ACC, and one from the Mountain West.

Ohio State and Penn State are ineligible for BCS ranking.

2. Texas Toast: Someone's always going to be mad after an Oklahoma-Texas game. But wowser, to get clubbed the way Texas did?

It's not like it was new, though. It was OU's second-straight win over the Longhorns by 38 points or more, and fourth by Bob Stoops over Mack Brown's Texas teams.

Here were some reactions after the Horns' 63-21 loss to the Sooners in Dallas. Click on the links to see their essays.

Kirk Bohls, Austin American-Statesman: Texas needs a makeover. Or a Mack-over, because too many have to be wondering if the Texas coach who remade Longhorns football and brought it the first national championship in 35 years is the same coach who has to rebuild it back into the powerhouse he so desperately yearns for it to be.

For now, Texas is nothing more than Nebraska in better uniforms. Neither great program seems nationally relevant at the moment.

Cedric Golden, Austin American-Statesman: Texas can't tackle.

I know it sounds like a broken record, but that's been the story of this Texas defense. Same issues, no real answers. ...

Want to hear a scary stat? The Longhorns have surrendered 980 rushing yards in their last four games, an average of 245 yards per contest and 5.8 yards per carry. Unacceptable. Unbelievable. OK, at this point, it's believable.

Jimmy Burch, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Texas' loss raises questions about how well Texas' second-year play-callers -- co-offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin and defensive coordinator Manny Diaz -- match up against their Oklahoma counterparts. Texas' duo has been outscored by a combined margin of 118-38 as play-callers in the Red River Rivalry, and Brown, who has a $3.5 million buyout in a contract that runs through 2020, is destined to hear plenty of grumbling from fans about his job status after a two-game losing streak that should remove Texas from the Top 25 rankings.

3. Thriller Miller: The score of the Ohio State-Indiana game in Bloomington Saturday night was shockingly low.

Buckeyes 52, Hoosiers 49. Oh wait, they weren't playing basketball?

OSU sophomore quarterback Braxton Miller is running amok this season, and his passing isn't too shabby, either.

Miller rushed for 156 yards and a TD at Indiana, and passed for 211 yards and two scores. He had to keep the Buckeyes churning on offense, because they sure weren't getting it done defensively.

Miller has 11 TD passes, nine TD runs, and just four interceptions. In seven games, all wins, he has thrown for 1,271 yards, rushed for 912. He is third in the Big Ten in both passing efficiency and rushing.

Has a Heisman Trophy-winner ever gone to a player on a team that is on NCAA probation?

By the way, it was the most points Indiana ever scored against Ohio State, and the most it ever scored against a Top Ten team.

Said Indiana Coach Kevin Wilson: “We don't want to be like the Old Testament where they wander in the desert and start doubting things. What we're doing is gaining. We're challenging the seniors to keep this going. We're close to success.”

4. They Might Be Giants: Iowa beat Northern Illinois, 18-17, and Iowa State downed Tulsa, 38-23, on the season's first Saturday.

On the season's seventh Saturday, Northern Illinois and Tulsa became bowl-eligible.

The Huskies and Golden Hurricane have both peeled off six straight victories, and probably have several more ahead.

Northern Illinois routed Buffalo Saturday in DeKalb, 45-3.

"That was the most complete game that we've had in the two years I have been here," NIU coach Dave Doeren said.

Tulsa scored three touchdowns in a 7-minute span during its 33-11 win over UTEP last Thursday.

5. Missouri Misery: That move to the SEC that Missouri made prior to this season ... hmmm.

The Tigers fell to 0-4 in their new league after giving Alabama no game whatsoever in Columbia Saturday.

The Crimson Tide took a 21-0 first-quarter lead, and won, 42-10. Alabama had 533 yards, Missouri 129. The Tigers had three rushing yards.

"That is maybe the best team I have ever seen," Missouri Coach Gary Pinkel said.

He was referring to Bama, not Mizzou.