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After a rough start to the 2020 football season, the Iowa Hawkeyes have turned things around. Iowa started the year with back-to-back losses at Purdue and at home to Northwestern by a combined five points. Since then, the Hawkeyes have gone unbeaten, rattling off four straight wins en route to a perfect November.
During the stretch of four straight, Iowa has outscored opponents 151 to 55. They’ve maintained a +8 turnover margin, creating 11 turnovers across those 4 games while rushing for more than 190 yards per game. That’s a recipe for success in Iowa City.
On Tuesday night, the recent hot streak garnered Iowa additional national attention as the Hawkeyes moved up from #24 the previous week to 19th nationally in the College Football Playoff rankings.
Checking in at No. 1️⃣9️⃣ | #Hawkeyes #CFBPlayoff pic.twitter.com/B0p2CiNj1p
— Hawkeye Football (@HawkeyeFootball) December 2, 2020
Iowa is one of five Big Ten teams to crack the top-25 this week. Ohio State is the lone top-10 team after Northwestern fell to Michigan State a week ago. For their part, the Wildcats fell to #14, two spots behind Indiana. Wisconsin is the other Big Ten team in the ranks, coming in at #16.
Elsewhere, Iowa State cracks the top-10 after a win over Texas. They land at #9 this week. They’re one of three Big 12 teams ranked. The SEC has four teams ranked and all crack the top-10, headlined of course by #1 Alabama. That’s tied with the ACC for the second-most ranked teams (behind the Big Ten), thanks in part to the inclusion of Notre Dame in the ACC this season.
Here’s a look at the full ranks this week:
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While the CFP rankings are the ones that truly count at the end of the day, the Hawkeyes also earned some national attention in the other major polls this week. Iowa came in at #24 in both the Coaches and AP Poll for week 14.
The Hawkeyes will look to extend their perfect November into December as they travel to Illinois for a 2:30 CT kickoff on Saturday. The matchup will be broadcast on either Big Ten Network or FS1. The Hawkeyes close out the regular season on December 12th with the #16 Wisconsin Badgers before a December 19th matchup that will be determined by the final conference standings.