Hlas: Iowa? In the BCS title game? Well, of course

Let's talk about what Iowa's football team must do to reach the BCS title game.

What, five games still remain? Saturday night's visit to Michigan State has peril attached? Maybe it doesn't make total sense to assume five more Iowa wins when almost all of the first seven were so hard to attain.

Right now, it's like worrying we'll have a blizzard Christmas Eve. It's possible, yes, but far from a sure thing. And it doesn't help to worry about being unable to leave home that night to give and receive “12-0 Hawkeyes” garb at family gatherings.

Aw, what the hay. That genie flew out of the bottle last Saturday after Iowa ran its record to 7-0 with its win at Wisconsin. A few dominoes fell elsewhere to help propel the Hawkeyes to sixth in the first BCS rankings.

“I know it's great for fan interest and for people to talk about,” Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said Tuesday morning on Dan Patrick's national radio show. “(But) at this point of the year it really doesn't mean much.”

Really, Kirk? Then why was the first question at your Tuesday afternoon press conference in Iowa City this:

“When the first BCS standings came out on Sunday, were you surprised to see that the last unbeaten team in the Big Ten, a team with a resume as impressive as yours (was), I guess, the lowest of all the unbeatens from major conferences?”

“‘Impressive resume,' those are your words, not ours,” Ferentz replied to the questioner from The Associated Press.

He added “But I thought there might be a question about the BCS. I thought that might come up. Took a wild shot.”

That wasn't the last BCS-related question Ferentz fielded. His seemed amused, not annoyed, with queries including the phrase “national championship.”

His team has to worry about Michigan State, he said a few times with good reason. If the Hawkeyes keep winning, Ferentz said, everything will take care of itself.

How predictably levelheaded. Fortunately, the rest of us don't have to play that game. So what would it take to put the Hawkeyes behind the wheel of a sleek 2009 BCS Title-Game Cruiser.

It's simple, really. Win those five games, hope Texas trips up in one of its remaining six or seven outings (at Oklahoma State on Halloween?), and cross your fingers USC doesn't curry favor with the BCS' pollsters and computers if it wins the rest of its games.

Boise State? Cincinnati? Not with their schedules. Not when Iowa would wow the computers by adding road wins over Michigan State and Ohio State to the ones they own over Penn State and Wisconsin.

So Texas slips, USC doesn't rise, and Iowa goes to Pasadena to play the winner of the Alabama-Florida SEC title game. Enjoy Disneyland, everyone.

“Can I jump on the Iowa bandwagon?” Patrick asked Ferentz Tuesday.

“Better hold on,” the coach said. “Better wait till the end of the season to see what really pans out.”

The host was joking and Ferentz played along. Maybe everyone should take this BCS stuff with a grain of humor.

But if the Hawkeyes beat Michigan State ...