Thursday Hawkeyes Reading Room -- More BCS hoo-hah, with a Kafkaesque touch

Last Saturday's Indiana-Iowa game gave ESPN its second-highest rating ever for a Saturday noon (Eastern time) college football game. Among the viewers was Joe Paterno, as we learn from this Norristown (Pa.) Times Herald story. Said Paterno:

"We played late (last) Saturday, 4:30 Eastern Time (at Northwestern), and I got to watch the some of the second quarter in the hotel room waiting for the bus to take us over to the stadium. Obviously, it looked as if Indiana might sneak by them.”

It didn't happen, and Penn State remained a game behind Iowa in the Big Ten standings.

Chris Dufresne of the Los Angeles Times has his personal Top 25 for this week. Iowa is eighth, just like in the Associated Press poll. But Alabama is ... sixth! Dufresne has the Crimson Tide behind Cincinnati, Boise State, Oregon and TCU.

About the Hawkeyes, he writes:  Somebody is definitely watching over this team…from the replay box?

For Duf's complete rankings with comments, click here.

Barker Davis of the Washington Times says if Iowa wins out, it will have the biggest beef of anyone should the BCS title game pit Texas vs. the SEC champion. Davis writes:

Iowa actually has cause to scream that it belongs in the BCS title game in lieu of Texas, a team whose timing has been as lucky this season (see personnel issues for Oklahoma and Oklahoma State) as it was unlucky a year ago.

ESPN.com's Adam Rittenberg lists all the teams Iowa fans should root for and against Saturday. It's a long list, folks, and it's here. An excerpt:

If Texas wins out as expected, Iowa's best chance to reach the title game would be to leapfrog a one-loss SEC team. Iowa would benefit from Alabama losing to LSU and then either the Tide or the Tigers beating Florida in the SEC championship game. The Hawkeyes still might have a rough time winning the argument, but they'd have a better chance.

Is this BCS stuff making your head hurt yet? Well, you Iowa fans should accept that all these BCS scenari0s are better than none at all, which you'll have should the Hawkeyes lose in any of their remaining three games.

Meanwhile, Iowa linebacker Jeremiha Hunter gets some ink from his hometown paper, the York (Pa.) Daily Record.

From the you-can-find-lots-of-stuff-on-the-Internet files: Ron Bailey of the

Maysville (Ky.) Ledger Independent picks Iowa over Northwestern. Says Ron:

The Hawkeyes are just playing hard enough to win, but the Wildcats will be outmatched in this game.

Before you think our man Ron is just parroting party lines, know he's picking Ohio State to win at Penn State. Oh, and Cumberland over Kentucky Christian.

Now things start to really break down.

It seems a bit of a reach, but the Badger Herald from the UW-Madison suggests the NFL's Oakland Raiders could never compete with the Big Ten's heavyweights. A passage:

Ohio State has more future NFL hopefuls currently on the Buckeyes roster than the Raiders do.

Penn State wins in an old man competition pitting JoPa against Al Davis.

And Iowa would win ugly, because that is what the Hawkeyes do.

Those crazy college kids.

With Northwestern quarterback Mike Kafka coming to Kinnick Stadium Saturday,

Black Heart Gold Pants presents a visit to ESPN College GameDay by Kafka. Not Mike, but Franz.

Franz Kafka is interviewed by Chris Fowler, Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit, and the author offers some words of wisdom to the ESPN threesome. Such as.

Don't despair, not even over the fact that you don't despair.

For the entire "interview," click here.

You Hawkeye fans may not appreciate The Postgame Tailgate, Week Nine, especially at the 1:00 and 2:45 marks. You've been warned. This comes our way via The Wiz of Odds.