Too early for the bowls, but on tiebreakers ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. - The vibe around the Iowa program has been “hold your horses” when it comes to everything postseason, everything bowl game.

“We're bowl-eligible and we're happy to be bowl-eligible,” Iowa Athletics Director Gary Barta said. “But, yes, it's too early to look any farther than that.”

The Hawkeyes landed at No. 6 in the initial Bowl Championship Series rankings. It's the second-highest the Hawkeyes have been in the BCS poll after reaching No. 5 in 2002.

“I had somebody do research,” Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said. “Quick one for you, the teams that were six through 10 last year in the initial poll, anybody want to take a shot where they finished?

“Three moved down. One stayed the same and one moved from 10 to 1. So a conclusion there is you could go up, you could go down or you might stay the same. So that's about all I took out of that whole thing. And it's October 20th. So I'm not too worried about any of that stuff right now.

“It's kind of amusing, but apparently it's helping fill air time. And it's good for college football, people paying attention and talking football. So I guess that's all good stuff.”

Time to review the Big Ten tiebreaking procedures for the BCS bowl bid.

The first tiebreaker is head-to-head. The Hawkeyes would hold that over Penn State and Wisconsin. A head-to-head victory over Iowa was probably Michigan State's only way to the BCS. The Spartans don't face Ohio State or Michigan but do host Penn State for the season finale.

Tiebreaker No. 2 is overall record. MSU was 4-3 headed into last night's game. Its two non-conference losses (Central Michigan and Notre Dame) might doom it down the road.

The third tiebreaker is highest ranking in the BCS standings.

Ohio State defeated Minnesota, 38-7, Saturday, so the Buckeyes (6-2, 4-1) kept up their end of a possible Big Ten title showdown Nov. 14 in Columbus.

The Capital One and Outback Bowls showed up Saturday at Spartan Stadium.

Ferentz was asked this week how he keeps the team grounded.

“I think just the things that we talked about, that BCS stat, that's the only reason I looked it up,” he said. “I'll share it with the team. But that's pretty telling. And the other thing all of us need to remember, we're not even halfway through our conference play yet as a team.

“We have such a long road ahead of us right now.”