by David Uberti
The entire nation should be grateful for the efforts of the Northwestern Wildcats today. Their improbable 17-10 victory at No. 4 Iowa dethroned the Big Ten-leading Hawkeyes, ending the hopes of yet another flawed Big Ten team reaching a BCS Championship game.
Northwestern’s victory on Saturday proves only one thing: Iowa should not have even been in the national picture. The Hawkeyes started the season by barely scraping by against an FCS team in Iowa State. Sure, Kirk Ferentz & Co. won their next eight games after that scare in Week One, they trailed in seven of them. Meanwhile, their quarterback, Ricky Stanzi, led the country in interceptions.
Still, all signs pointed to Iowa becoming the Big Ten’s latest paper champion appearing in a BCS Bowl. That is, until Northwestern came to town.
The Wildcats (6-4, 3-3) exposed all of the Hawkeye’s weaknesses. They forced four turnovers in the second quarter, intercepting Stanzi once and recovering his fumble in the endzone for a touchdown. They also stifled the run, which has hurt since the departure of Shonn Greene.
In short, Northwestern saved Iowa the pleasure of being embarrassed in a BCS bowl game. They exposed all of their weaknesses.
Northwestern celebrates its first victory against a Top 10 team since beating Ohio State in 2004, 33-27. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
The path is now unclear for the Hawkeyes, who lost Stanzi in the second quarter with what Ferentz called a “severe” ankle injury. They still control their Big Ten destiny, having beat Penn State earlier in the year, but travel to the Horseshoe next week to face Ohio State. The game against the Buckeyes, who looked dominant today in their victory over Penn State, will effectively decide the Big Ten.
An Iowa fan reacts after her team's loss to the losingest program in Division I-A history. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
The Big Ten’s Vietnam-Era, three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust, Bo Schembechler mindset has not paid dividends in the postseason. The conference hasn’t won a BCS bowl game since 2006, losing in five of their last six appearances by double digits. Yet conference champions still earn automatic bids to BCS games.
So thank you Northwestern, for exposing Iowa as a fraud. As the Hawkeyes couldn’t even beat a team that fails to draw 25,000 fans to home games on a regular basis, who knows how they would have fared against the likes of Alabama. Or Texas. Or Tim Tebow and his Gator apostles.
Best of all, Northwestern increased the likelihood of another BCS bowl meltdown from a team that deserves to be embarrassed: Ohio State.
November 10th, 2009 at 10:16 am
Ohio State is a different team than earlier in the year. They won’t be embarrassed against Iowa or @ Michigan.
But yea, as if the BCS isn’t bad enough, it would have been made worse with a Big Ten in the title game. The Big 10/11 can only take so many beat downs in the national spotlight .