Iowa's sports information office tries to set the nation straight about the Hawkeyes

I don't know what prompted Iowa to do this, or who did the prompting. But you tell me if you're glad to see this done, and if it can be helpful. What follows came from an e-mail from Iowa sports information director Phil Haddy to, presumably, every media person on his e-mail list.

TO: College Football Media

FROM: Phil Haddy (Iowa's sports information director)

GET THE CORRECT FACTS ON IOWA FOOTBALL

It seems popular for national pundits to criticize the University of Iowa football team these days. Many have said Iowa doesn't belong on the same board with Florida, Texas, Alabama, Cincinnati, TCU, Oregon or Boise State. Iowa's schedule has been rated the seventh toughest in the nation. Only one team in Big Ten history has beaten Penn State, Michigan State and Wisconsin on the road in the same season (Michigan did it in 1997). The two schools Iowa does not play in the Big Ten this year have the worst overall records (Purdue and Illinois) in the league. To say Iowa hasn't played a strong enough schedule is to be totally misinformed. Please look at the facts below.

Number of opponents defeated that currently have winning records:

1.  Iowa                6

2.  Cincinnati        4

     TCU                4

4.  Oregon            3

5.  Boise State      2

Total won-lost records (and winning %) of defeated opponents:

1.  Iowa                44-31     .586

2.  Oregon            29-28     .508

3.  TCU                34-33     .507

4.  Cincinnati        30-36     .454

5.  Boise State     27-37     .421

Total won-lost records of opponents defeated in their home stadiums (i.e. road wins)

1.  Iowa               23-12      .657

2.  TCU               19-14      .575

3.  Cincinnati       21-20      .512

4.  Boise State    14-18      .437

5.  Oregon            6-10      .375

Number of defeated opponents ranked in current BCS Top 25:

1.  Iowa                3  (Penn State, Arizona, Wisconsin)

    Oregon             3  (USC, Utah, California)

3.  Boise State      1  (Oregon)

4.  Cincinnati         1  (South Florida)

5.  TCU                 0

Won-lost records of remaining teams left on schedule:

1.  Iowa                 17-10    .629

2.  Oregon             19-12    .612

3.  Cincinnnati        19-13    .593

4.  Boise State       20-22    .476

5.  TCU                  15-17    .468