1. Five games remain: @Michigan State, Indiana, Northwestern, @Ohio State, and Minnesota. Each of those teams has beaten Iowa since 2006.

2. Iowa's next game is at Michigan State, and Iowa hasn't won in East Lansing since 1995. Granted, it probably doesn't matter too much to these players what happened in college football while they were in grade school, but history shows that East Lansing is where Hawkeye dreams go to die.

3. Big Ten Tiebreaker Rules:

If there is a tie for the championship, the winner of the game between these two teams shall represent the conference.

If there is still a tie, or if the tied teams did not play each other, the representative shall be determined on the percentage basis of all games played.

If there is still a tie, the highest-ranked team in the final BCS standings shall be the representative.

In other words, it doesn't matter that Ohio State has a Big Ten loss already. Unless they lose another game, they still control their own destiny--and Iowa's got to go there in November.

 

That all said... this season is already shaping up to be special. Just lowercase-s special at this point, mind you, but of the five hardest games on Iowa's Big Ten slate, Iowa has now won the first three. All that's left are two fierce road games and three "trap" games at Kinnick. Win at least four of them, and it's a capital-s Special season.

More later.