Where now, Hawks?

IOWA CITY - Anyone for an early-January Fiesta in Phoenix? How about a second Orange crush of Iowa fans in Miami?

Big possibilities remained, well, possible for the Iowa Hawkeyes football team Saturday after it defeated Minnesota, 12-0, at Kinnick Stadium.

The victory concluded Iowa's regular-season at 10-2, and all but assured them eligibility for a selection to a Bowl Championship Series game.

The question now is will the Fiesta Bowl or Orange Bowl select the Hawkeyes with a BCS at-large selection, or will those games look elsewhere and leave Iowa for one of the Big Ten-affiliated bowls in Florida, such as Orlando's Capital One Bowl.

“Right now, Iowa's on our radar screen,” said Orange Bowl committee member Larry Gautier, who attended the game and had an embrace for Hawkeyes Coach Kirk Ferentz when they reunited before Ferentz's postgame news conference.

Gautier was Iowa's Orange Bowl host when the Hawkeyes played in that game seven seasons ago. He said the bowl estimated 48,000 Iowa fans went to Miami-Fort Lauderdale then, either to attend the game or to be with Hawkeye friends there.

“They have a positive track record,” Gautier said of Iowa supporters' willingness to travel to bowls. “In the 75-year history of the Orange Bowl, I don't think anyone's had more fans there.”

The Fiesta Bowl is widely considered Iowa's most likely destination if it gets in a BCS bowl. Many variables are to be decided in the last two weeks of the college regular-season, however.

But Iowa's work is done. Ten wins and a near-certain top-14 spot in the final BCS standings give the Hawkeyes a chance at a BCS bowl.

If that doesn't pan out, there's always Orlando.