Iowa Moves Up to Number Five

The second batch of the College Football Playoff rankings came out this Tuesday, and the rankings  did not disappoint Hawkeye fans.
The top four this week was Clemson at number one, Alabama at number two, Ohio State in the three spot, and Notre Dame at number four rounding out the final four.  So no surprises there at all in the slightest.  But the real surprise was the Iowa Hawkeyes at number five.
The Hawkeyes jumped all the way from the ninth spot to their first top five ranking since the 2009 Orange Bowl, season, the last and only other time that the Hawkeyes were 9-0.  The move up shows just how much respect that the Committee has for the Hawkeyes.  As the Chair, Arkansas AD Jeff Long said, the Hawkeyes don't have an explosive offense, such as Big 12 teams Baylor and Oklahoma State, they are just plain consistent.  They don't commit very many penalties or turn the ball over.  It's not sexy, but week in and week out, they have taken care of business and won football games to remain undefeated.
Rounding out the rest of the top ten is Baylor, Stanford, Oklahoma State, LSU, and Utah.  Five through eight was where the Committee spent most of their time deliberating according to Long, and is a crap shoot.  The thing that sets the Hawkeyes apart is their two top 25 wins, both on the road at 18 Northwestern and at 25 Wisconsin.  The Hawkeyes, along with Notre Dame, are the only two teams that can claim two top 25 wins, but the Hawkeyes wins both came on the road.
Iowa is put ahead of Baylor because Baylor hasn't played anybody.  Baylor hasn't played a team with a winning record the whole year, while Iowa has played five.  Oklahoma State moved up from 14 to 8, but should not be in the top 4, because they beat number eight at home.  So they shouldn't move up eleven spots, even though it was in blowout fashion.  Iowa is ahead of  Stanford, in part because they beat Northwestern by thirty on the road, while Stanford lost and looked terrible at Ryan Field.  No, it being played at 9:00 Am Western Time isn't an excuse.
Things change from week to week, but, by the rankings, it seems if Ohio State and Iowa were to meet in the Big Ten Championship, it would be a de facto play-in-game for a Semifinal spot.  Even though a lot of people hate the Hawkeyes because they think they're not good, such as Colin Cowherd and Paul Finebaum.  The Committee like the Hawkeyes, and that's the opinion that matters.