Hlas: Like last January, I have the Hawks at 16

To vote in a U.S. national election, you must be 18, you must be a U.S. citizen and you can't be a felon.

The requirements to vote in Associated Press' college football rankings are even more lax. Because I'm one of them.

AP picked me up on waivers late last football season when Iowa's member on the voting panel, Eric Page, left his job covering University of Iowa football for the Quad City Times to work for a college. What a heathen.

You're obviously a less-qualified voter if you can see several games on television each Saturday instead of just the one you're attending.

I quickly became 0-for-1 in picking national champions. I saw Utah smoke Alabama in the Sugar Bowl to finish as the only unbeaten team in the nation, then picked the Utes No. 1.

Well, I sort of saw the Sugar Bowl. I napped through much of it.

Florida finished No. 1. The 12-1 Gators beat six ranked teams, dominating most of them. They downed Oklahoma in the BCS title game to truly earn their final ranking.

Forty-eight of the 65 voters took Florida No. 1. Sixteen of us tabbed Utah, either on principle for rewarding a team that did everything that was asked of it, or because we're from Utah.

A writer from Fort Wayne, Ind., took USC No. 1, Utah No. 2, and Florida No. 3. It's that old West Coast bias from Fort Wayne you hear so much about.

I picked Iowa 16th in the final poll last season. The Hawkeyes were 20th.

Iowa was probably one of the best 11 or 12 teams in the country at season's end, but you couldn't ignore its four losses. Fifteen voters clearly didn't ignore them, omitting the Hawkeyes from their top 25 altogether.

Tom Keegan of the Lawrence (Kan.) Journal World had Iowa 14th. Writers from Alabama, Florida, Michigan, Nevada and Texas put the Hawkeyes 15th.

This year, I start Iowa right where I left it, 16th.

“About 50th would be good,” Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz told me last month in Chicago when I asked him where I should rank his guys.

Then he softened, and said “We're 20 to 35 at this point.”

That convinced me it's a top 16 team. Ferentz wouldn't say “20 to 35” unless he thought the team was good.

We were required to vote almost three weeks ago. Since then, Iowa has a worry at running back because of Jewel Hampton's ouchy knee, and at cornerback with Jordan Bernstine out for the season with a broken ankle. So I'd have probably dropped the Hawkeyes a couple of spots.

Another reason I went with the 16th slot for Iowa is because that's where Phil Steele ranks the Hawkeyes in his preseason power poll. Steele is my college football guru. Plus, he sends me one of his preseason magazines for free every year.

My top 25 - with the holes still visible from the darts I threw to assemble it - can be found at the Hlog at GazetteOnline.

I will tell you here that I tabbed Florida No. 1 just like most of the other sheep. Why? Because that's where the Gators ended last season. You should stay No. 1 until you've been toppled.

Plus, I'm told they have a kid named Tebow who is a nice little quarterback. I'm not for sure on that. I seldom get to see Florida play.

I didn't put Utah in my preseason top 25. If you can't bribe enough sports reporters to vote you No. 1 after going 13-0, how are you to be taken seriously as a football program?