Beware, Iowa football fans: Tennessee Tech got votes in the FCS preseason Top 25 poll

This isn't some ordinary team that hasn't won a share of the Ohio Valley Conference football championship since 1975.

No, Tennessee Tech is attracting a preseason buzz. It raked in votes (or one fairly high vote) in the FCS preseason Top 25 rankings.

The Golden Eagles have 12 points in the poll, which could mean they got 12 votes for No. 25 at one point apiece, or one vote at No. 13 for 12 points. Or some other combination.

Which isn't much, actually. Especially when you consider the 12 points leaves Tech tied for 54th in the poll, and 2,440 points behind Northern Iowa, which is at No. 7.

But it's not bad for a program with just one winning season in the last six years, no? It's not bad for a program that hasn't outscored its opponents over an entire season since 2004. It's, it's ... well, it's a start.

Whether TTU will still get 12 points in the poll after its Sept. 3 season-opening game at Iowa remains to be seen. But it will always have that preseason tie for 54th, which is better than Brown or Columbia. Ivy League eggheads.

I don't want this to seem like mockery of a decent football team from the FCS level I hold in high regard. Some of my favorite memories in covering college football have involved watching Northern Iowa over the years. The UNI-Iowa game of 2009 was a showstopper, of course. I covered the I-AA national-title game between Appalachian State and Northern Iowa in Chattanooga, Tenn., in 2005. That was when I first saw the high caliber of player Appalachian State featured, two years before the Mountaineers won at Michigan. UNI was no slouch itself.

Perhaps Tennessee Tech will be the surprise team of FCS this year. Heck, maybe TTU will face UNI in this season's title game. It will be played Jan. 7, 2012, in Frisco, Texas. To finish a 20-team playoff.

Yes, a playoff. What a concept.