IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) -All Iowa's done is knock off Penn State, Wisconsin and Michigan State on the road. Oh, and the Hawkeyes are the nation's only 9-0 team and are ranked No. 4 in the BCS.
So why are so many so unimpressed with Iowa?
Lucky, ugly and bound to fall - the Hawkeyes have heard it all. Questioning Iowa (9-0, 5-0 Big Ten) has become common in the national media, and after seeing the Hawkeyes drop a spot to No. 8 despite an 18-point win over Indiana last week, its sports information office took action.
Iowa spokesman Phil Haddy sent out an e-mail on Monday asking the media to ``get the correct facts on Iowa football.'' It compared the Hawkeyes to fellow unbeatens Cincinnati, Boise State, TCU and one-loss Oregon - all teams ranked ahead of them in this week's Top 25.
Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz, who Haddy says wasn't aware of he e-mail until after it was sent, isn't ready to hit the campaign trail yet. He's more worried about Northwestern (5-4, 2-3), which visits Kinnick Stadium on Saturday, than changing public perception.
Besides, he's got a theory on squawking about the polls.
``Usually the first team to complain is the first team to get beat,'' Ferentz said.
Haddy's e-mail said that the Hawkeyes have beaten six teams who currently have winning records, though one was Northern Iowa of the FCS. That's two more than the Bearcats and Horned Frogs and four more than the Broncos. According to Haddy, the teams Iowa has beaten have a combined record of 44-31, also best of the bunch, and the teams the Hawkeyes have beaten on the road are a combined 23-12.
Only Oregon can match Iowa for wins against teams in the BCS Top 25 with three. TCU doesn't have any.
But those numbers, impressive as they might be, don't account for Iowa's relatively low standing in the Top 25. It instead has largely to do with the unimpressive way it's played against unimpressive competition.
The Hawkeyes beat Northern Iowa and Arkansas State at home by a total of just four points. They also took down a visiting Michigan team that's since fallen off the national map by two points and needed a last-second TD pass to beat Michigan State (4-5).
``I've seen a lot of very fortunate, if not outright lucky victories, against some suspect competition,'' said ESPN columnist Pat Forde, who referenced Haddy's e-mail in an espn.com column this week. ``I would like to turn on the TV one time and see them dominate somebody. Seems like every game I watch, they're scraping by.''
Still, it's not like Iowa hasn't beaten anyone.
Besides those road wins over the 11th-ranked Nittany Lions and 24th-ranked Badgers, Iowa manhandled what's turned out to be a decent Iowa State team 35-3 away from home, and their 27-17 win over No. 21 Arizona wasn't as close as the score indicated.
Of course, all this could be irrelevant if the Hawkeyes can't get past the Wildcats this weekend with a game at No 15 Ohio State looming on Nov. 14. Judging by the 10-point deficit they had to climb out of in the fourth quarter to beat Indiana last week, a win over Northwestern is no sure thing - even if Iowa is a 16 1/2-point favorite.
And truth be told, Cincinnati, Boise State, TCU and Oregon will likely have little impact on Iowa's hopes for a spot in the national title game.
The Hawkeyes will have to win their final three games and hope for unexpected chaos to befall Florida, Texas or Alabama. In fact, Haddy's e-mail didn't bother to match up Iowa's numbers against those top-ranked teams.
Ferentz has only allowed himself to ponder Iowa's future, at least publicly, in repeated passing references to the 2004 Auburn team that finished the season unbeaten but without a spot in the BCS title game.
``If we end up being Auburn or whatever that year that was, if that ends up happening to us, in some ways I'm not going to be too upset,'' Ferentz said. ``Because I don't know how you get too upset when you're undefeated. But that is so far down the road.''
