Consensus: Rose is one of year’s five best bowl matchups

All ye who doth protest too much about respect for Iowa's football team, heed the following.

People seem quite taken with the Iowa-Stanford Rose Bowl matchup.

Here are early rankings of the 40 bowl games in terms of interesting contests:

Yahoo Sports: 4th, behind the two College Football Playoff semifinals and Notre Dame-Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl. An excerpt:

Oh, the grit that will be in this game.

Tom Fornelli, CBSsports.com: 3rd, behind the two playoff games. An excerpt:

You'll just enjoy this game, I promise

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Matt Brown, SportsOnEarth.com: 5th, behind the playoff games, the Fiesta, and TCU-Oregon in the Alamo Bowl. An excerpt:

Iowa fans will travel well and likely take over the Rose Bowl, but (Christian) McCaffrey can be the difference in this game.

Patrick Stevens, Washington Post: 5th, behind the playoff games, Fiesta and Alamo. An excerpt:

For a game that loves its tradition, it is close enough to the way things were always done (until recently).

Steven Lassan, Athlon Sports: 5th, but he includes the national-title game, and has the playoff semifinals and Fiesta ahead of the Rose. An excerpt:

Assuming both teams land their share of body blows in the trenches, this game could come down to whichever quarterback — Stanford's Kevin Hogan or Iowa's C.J. Beathard — connect on a few timely throws in the second half.

Tom Dienhart, BTN.com: 5th, behind the two playoff semis, the Fiesta and Alamo. An excerpt:

Two tough, physical teams meet for the first time.

Mark Schlabach, ESPN.com: 4th, behind the two playoff semis and the Fiesta. An excerpt:

If you love old-fashioned football, this is going to be a fun game to watch.