Wednesday morning Iowa-Michigan State reading room - MSU '09 is like Iowa '08, the Big Ten's tiebreaker formula to determine its BCS qualifier

Michigan State Coach Mark Dantonio says his 4-3 team (formerly 1-3) is where Iowa was last year when the Hawkeyes were 3-3 at midseason, including a loss at MSU.

If true, that's a somewhat unsettling thing for Iowa, since it went 6-1 the rest of the way last season after that 3-3 start, and didn't lose again at home.

"If you look at the two teams, you can probably say we're right where Iowa was last year with a couple of things that happened early in the season to them," Dantonio said in this mlive.com article.

"This is just me talking," Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said Tuesday, "but I think they're probably a couple games ahead of where we were in the game last year. I think they've got some things cleaned up and have been playing really good football."

The Detroit Free Press has a piece that amplifies that, with Dantonio saying "There's a real good feel on this football team right now. I think one of the reasons is that we were 1-3, and we're doing it the hard way. We've had to reach back, overcome some adversity. And when you do that, you start to have a good feeling about yourself a little bit."

Statenews.com has this story noting Iowa was one of the programs Dantonio wanted to use as a model when he got to Michigan State as head coach before the 2007 season. An excerpt:

“When you become a head football coach, I think you try and emulate some of the programs around the country that you look at,” he said. “Iowa was one of them that I looked at.”

Dantonio pointed to his experiences against the Hawkeyes when he was an assistant coach for MSU from 1995-2000.

“When I was here in 2000, I remember going to Iowa and they were on a long losing streak,” he said. “I remember they beat Michigan State in 2000 and at that point in time it started to turn. It took time, but I remember that time and I think he built it step by step, and (Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz) built it with a great foundation under it.”

Adam Rittenberg of ESPN.com gives his midseason awards for each team. For his offensive and defensive MVPs of Iowa, click here.

Finally, Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune has the pertinent info on the Big Ten's tiebreakers for the league's automatic BCS berth in his weekly Big Ten notes. Greenstein writes:

The Big Ten's new tiebreaker for the league's automatic BCS bowl slot could hurt Michigan State because of its non-conference record.

The second tiebreaker is now overall record, and Michigan State has two non-conference losses. The old tiebreaker punished teams that played FCS (I-AA) teams. (Michigan State did play I-AA Montana State, so the Spartans would have taken a hit under that method as well.)

The first tiebreaker remains head-to-head play. So if Iowa and Ohio State are the only 7-1 teams, the winner of their Nov. 14 meeting would go to the Rose Bowl. (And Ohio State must win that game to finish 7-1.)

The third tiebreaker, by the way, is higher ranking in the BCS standings.

Iowa (3-0 Big Ten) already holds the first tiebreaker over Penn State (2-1). If Ohio State (3-1) wins out, beating Iowa and Penn State, the Buckeyes are likely bound for Pasadena. They don't play Michigan State (3-1), and the Spartans' non-league losses to Central Michigan and Notre Dame would hurt the Michigan State cause.