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The Iowa Hawkeyes moved up two spots in each of the major polls, coming in at No. 10 in the Associated Press poll and No. 11 in the most recent Amway Coaches Poll released Sunday. Iowa, which did not play this weekend, moved ahead of Utah and Florida State in both polls, after each of those teams lost to unranked opponents Saturday night. The Hawkeyes remain behind Stanford, which lost to a team that Iowa beat by 30, in both polls.
Otherwise, little changed in either poll. In the Coaches poll, LSU moved ahead of Michigan State, because a modest win over Western Kentucky carries more weight than a modest win over Indiana, a team that beat Western Kentucky earlier this season. The coaches also decided not to move Clemson, which beat Miami by 58.
The AP Poll is slightly better -- at least Clemson is getting its due, moving up two spots to No. 3 ahead of TCU and LSU -- but there is one No. 1 vote for one-loss Alabama in that poll from John Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News, a man who also ranks Florida ahead of Ohio State. The Omaha World-Herald's Sam McKeown has two-loss Michigan ranked ahead of Iowa and three-loss USC at No. 17, because some men just like to watch the world burn (he apparently is ranking USC as a protest vote over Duke...
I mean, you'd look at USC, which has losses to Stanford, ND and Washington and wins over Utah and ASU and think "Duke's on that." Please.
— Samuel McKewon (@swmckewonOWH) October 25, 2015
...which, huh?)
Michael Lev of the Orange County Register was so impressed with Michigan's performance on the bye week that he moved them ahead of Iowa. John Clay moved Michigan up six spots; it's excusable for someone from Lexington, which hasn't ever seen actual football.
What I'm saying is, these polls are garbage.
| Coaches | AP | |
| 1 | Ohio State (49) | Ohio State (39) |
| 2 | Baylor (10) | Baylor (7) |
| 3 | TCU (2) | Clemson (6) |
| 4 | LSU (1) | LSU (5) |
| 5 | Michigan State | TCU (3) |
| 6 | Clemson (1) | Michigan State |
| 7 | Alabama | Alabama (1) |
| 8 | Stanford | Stanford |
| 9 | Notre Dame | Notre Dame |
| 10 | Oklahoma State | Iowa |
| 11 | Iowa | Florida |
| 12 | Florida | Oklahoma State |
| 13 | Oklahoma | Utah |
| 14 | Utah | Oklahoma |
| 15 | Florida State | Michigan |
| 16 | Memphis | Memphis |
| 17 | Michigan | Florida State |
| 18 | Duke | Houston |
| 19 | Houston | Ole Miss |
| 20 | Toledo | Toledo |
| 21 | Ole Miss | Temple |
| 22 | Temple | Duke |
| 23 | Georgia | Pitt |
| 24 | Pitt | UCLA |
| 25 | UCLA | Mississippi State |
The basic premise remains the same for Iowa: Win them all, and the path to the College Football Playoff should open up. Ohio State and Michigan State still have to play for Big Ten East supremacy (and the pollsters are dying to move Sparty down). The same goes for Alabama and LSU in the SEC West and Baylor, TCU and Oklahoma State in a back-heavy Big 12 calendar (none of the conference's four ranked teams have played each other yet, a somewhat amazing occurrence for a conference that plays nine games and starts in mid-September).
If Iowa wins out, it should jump both Big Ten East teams (by virtue of winning the Big Ten title game), the SEC West loser, the Stanford-Notre Dame loser (and possibly the winner after a schedule-affirming Big Ten title), and two of the Big 12 teams. That would leave Iowa, the SEC champ (with one loss unless LSU gets it), the Big 12 champ, Clemson and the Stanford-Notre Dame winner (again, with one loss) for four spots. And an undefeated Big Ten champ is going to get one of those four spots.
So be patient and take this with a grain of salt. The Selection Committee convenes next week, and all of this immediately means nothing.