There's a few aspects of Iowa football that we fans would prefer not to talk about right now; chief among them is, oh, everything. So let's talk about Iowa's bowl chances for this season!

Amazingly, stunningly, unbelievably, Iowa's postseason hopes are not dead.

The Humanitarian Tire Bowl is fine!

Thanks to some incredible work from The Hawks Nest's own Cattlefeeder (may be a pseudonym), we can figure out exactly what Iowa needs to be invited to a terrible bowl at 6-6. There's lots to read (invaluable link is here), but here's the key portion:

Iowa goes bowling if all four of these things happen:

1. Washington beats Hawaii

2. Central Michigan beats Miami (OH)

3. Troy beats Florida Atlantic

4. The last available bowl bid is NOT the Las Vegas Bowl, which Iowa cannot attend due to finals conflicts.

We do not blame you one iota if you stopped reading that block quote after "Washington beats" and dismissed it as pure ridiculous fantasy. We did not say there was a good chance, we just said there's a chance.

Meanwhile, the UM and Iowa camps are issuing plausible claims of deniability on the Ferentz issue; MLive says Iowa hasn't granted permission to Michigan or anyone else to talk to Ferentz yet, as if it were a matter of the schools doing the grunt work. The search firm that delivered Todd Lickliter without certain blogging superstars catching a single whiff would like to  remind you what a luxury being discrete can be, after all.

The whole thing stinks, stinks, stinks like Ferentz is letting Michigan court him. To a point, it's understandable. To a point. But as Bellanca has so ably stated below, it's time for him to make the decision once and for all. He has, now, 24 hours.