For Iowa football, it’s one more record-breaking “Under” for the road

It’s become as repetitive as a game of fetch with Fido. Iowa is once again part of the lowest over/under betting number in college football history.

As of midweek, the O/U line on Iowa-Nebraska was 26.5 points and was even a little lower at some sportsbooks. It had even dropped to 25 at one. If that holds, it will break the two-week-old record of Rutgers-Iowa’s 27.5 points, which shattered the two-week-old record of Minnesota-Iowa’s 30.5 points, which replaced three previous games that closed at 31.5 points.

Two of those three were Iowa-Minnesota and Iowa-Kentucky last year.

Has there ever been a bigger gift to bettors than the “under” in second half of Iowa’s season? Every week, it seems too good to be true. Every week, it’s as good as gold.

Even with the unprecedented low O/Us, the “under” has cashed in each of the Hawkeyes’ last six games (and in 9 of their 11).

Had you bet $100 on the under six games ago with the 10 percent juice of a sportsbook and rolled over the total you got back each week, you would have $6,650 or something like that.

The only sensible thing to do would be to bet the $6,650 on the “under” in Friday’s Iowa-Nebraska game. Of course, gambling is for suckers.

Still, in those last six games in which the “under” paid, the O/U was never higher than 38.5 points. That’s a very low number for most games. But Iowa’s games aren’t most games, and the Big Ten isn’t most conferences.

The Hawkeyes are last in the nation in total offense. But they’ve played four league foes that are no better than 120th. Nebraska is all the way up to, uh, 114th.

Iowa has a good chance to become the first team in organized football history — pros, preps, Pop Warner, the Puppy Bowl — to win its division despite scoring the fewest points.

Just 67 points have been scored in Iowa’s last three games. That’s the lowest total in such a span of Hawkeye games since 1980.

The total points in Iowa’s last six contests is 144. You have to go back to 1956 to find six straight Hawkeye games with fewer total points.

But Iowa broke out of that by drubbing Notre Dame, 48-8, in its regular-season finale, then beat Oregon State in the Rose Bowl, 35-19.

Imagine this year’s Hawkeyes hanging a 35 on Michigan or Ohio State next Saturday in Indianapolis. Imagine Indianapolis replacing Hollywood as the capital of the global entertainment industry.

The midweek O/U for Saturday’s Ohio State-Michigan game was 46, by the way, and they’re the nation’s top two teams in scoring defense. But they also score!

Iowa has done a great job to win the Big Ten West, no two ways about it. But a seven-team division in which the one that has scored the least is champion? Wacky-wack.

It’s as if everyone in the division has conspired to prove their conference is doing the right thing by abandoning division play after this season ends.

The ACC and the Pac-12 scrapped divisions after the 2022 season. Had they not, it wouldn’t be Florida State-Louisville and Washington-Oregon in their league-championship games, battles of top-10 teams.

Georgia Tech, which will be 6-6 overall after losing to Georgia Saturday, would have been in the ACC’s title game.

So Iowa is the last team that will screw up a conference championship game before next year’s nutty new world of 18 teams in the Big Ten and 16 in the SEC.

Some have actually suggested the Hawkeyes rest their starters Thursday to save them for the Wolverines or Buckeyes. As if the offense doesn’t need all the rehearsal it can get.

Those people aren’t Ferentz’s agent, who knows the $250,000 bonus he gets for finishing in the Top 25, and the $25,000 bump if it’s the Top 20. The West title already banked him $200,000.

Besides, Ferentz doesn’t want to start head’s-up play against Nebraska Coach Matt Rhule with a loss. And there’s the bad taste still lingering with Iowa for kicking away the West title last year with a Black Friday home loss to a bad Huskers team.

So it will be the Full Hawkeye in Lincoln. Punters, start your engines.

Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com