The independent newspaper of the University of Iowa community since 1868

The Daily Iowan

The independent newspaper of the University of Iowa community since 1868

The Daily Iowan

The independent newspaper of the University of Iowa community since 1868

The Daily Iowan

Lack of AP love unjustified

I’m still waiting for Iowa to jump back into the top 25 rankings.

But after more than three weeks of rumination, I can only come up with one sensible assertion.

Actually, I’ll refine my claim: The AP college football top-25 voters are a bunch of haters. Some of them anyway.

Excuse me for being temporarily flippant and imprecise.

And really, I shouldn’t swing at the faces of future employers and potential coworkers. Obviously, we doughnut-eating, recorder-carrying Nosy Rosies have to band together to save the newspaper industry.

But they’re professionals. They’ve learned to guard their grills from unkind jabs.

They know college football fans thoroughly examine their weekly lists like doctors inspecting a 55-year-old’s prostate.

Homers and conference loyalists don’t hesitate to cry foul whenever they come across a bunch of [nonsense], either.

But my gripe with the Hawkeyes’ absence from the AP poll has nothing to do with my being a student, a Kirk Ferentz disciple, or a Big Ten supporter.

Actually, aside from Purdue and Indiana and Iowa’s annoying neighbor Illinois, I can’t stand Ohio State and root for Terrelle Pryor to fail every Saturday because Buckeye fans consider him the best thing since the invention of the condom (and he supports Michael Vick).

Big 12 football is more my style. (Surprise! I didn’t say the SEC. ESPN is all over that nauseating lovefest anyway, subjectively drinking Swamp-ade and eating Louisiana frog cakes.)

It seems as though the AP agrees with me in that regard, though. Five Big 12 teams ranked in the top 25, while Missouri stands as the next man in should another overrated squad (Washington?) fall on Saturday.

So where does Iowa fit into all this? Well, after finally breaking into the poll at No. 20 after curb-stomping South Carolina, 31-10, in the Outback Bowl in January, the Hawkeyes moved down to No. 22 during the preseason.

Then, following wins against Arizona, Iowa State, and a top-five Football Championship Subdivision team in Northern Iowa, they were nowhere to be found.

Mind you, Iowa didn’t slide into the rankings last season after toppling Penn State in Kinnick Stadium either, receiving a mere five votes.

Meanwhile, the Nittany Lions only fell four sports and out of BCS title contention, boo hoo.

You put Michigan in at No. 25 two weeks ago after the Wolverines ousted unproven Notre Dame in the Big House.

But Iowa, which had only lost by a combined 12 points in four losses last year, didn’t make the cut after beating a top-three team?

I’m not saying your job is easy, but stop double-fisting biggie-size cups of Coca-Cola in the press box and pay attention to the 24-hour sports news cycle provided to you by that square glowing thing in front of you.

Granted, the Hawkeyes haven’t done anything to merit a top-25 spot thus far, looking slower than dial-up Internet during the first halves of their three nonconference contests.

Still, they shouldn’t have fallen out in the first place. Some explain why Nebraska strode into Iowa’s No. 22 slot after trouncing Florida Atlantic by 46 points.

Now I understand why Ferentz and the Hawkeyes don’t concern themselves with rankings until November.

Most of the AP pollsters are just a cluster of piglet runts suckling at the BCS power-conference teat.

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