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Your Iowa Hawkeyes did enough to impress a bunch of old dudes on Friday night to move the Black and Gold up two spots to #3 in the AP rankings, leapfrogging Penn State and taking the place of an Oregon team that lost in overtime to a hapless Stanford squad.
POLL ALERT: Iowa up to No. 3, Cincinnati to No. 5, BYU to No. 10 in AP Top 25; Kentucky, Texas, SMU, SDSU in; Clemson out.
— AP Top 25 (@AP_Top25) October 3, 2021
Full poll presented by @askRegions >> https://t.co/Dr5y8rQDWT pic.twitter.com/gdxQuxKRy9
Iowa’s upcoming opponent, the aforementioned Nittany Lions, held pat at #4, making Saturday’s matchup the first between two top-five teams in Kinnick since the Iowa-Michigan showdown in 1985. (I think. If that’s wrong, blame Chazz.) This will be the first time Penn State plays in a game between two top-four teams since it took on Arizona in 1999.
Iowa received zero first place votes, as Alabama received 53 of those and Georgia nine, more or less solidifying the top two until those teams meet in the SEC Championship.
Other Big Ten teams in the top-25 include Ohio State at seven, Michigan at nine, and Michigan State at 11. Five Big Ten teams in the top 11 is pretty good!
Cincinnati also appears in the top-five after embarrassing a BAD Notre Dame team in South Bend, and Clemson drops out of the top-25, even after hanging on against Boston College.
Just take care of business Saturday and this will sort itself out.