The SEC (which is not the only conference in college football, no matter how much they like to think they are... although they might be the only one with their own Bat-signal) is getting to set to announce their conference football schedules for the next 12 seasons and part of that process involves revealing the new scheduling methodology to be used now that the league has sprawled to 14 teams. That methodology? 6-1-1. 6 games against your fellow divisional opponents, 1 game against a permanent cross-divisional rival (i.e., Alabama-Tennessee, Georgia-Auburn, Florida-LSU*), and 1 game against a rotating cross-divisional opponent. That last one -- the rotating cross-divisional opponent -- isn't home and away, so Florida could play at Mississippi State one year and then host Ole Miss the next year and so on.

What it amounts to is this: aside from their permanent cross-divisional rival, teams from opposing divisions will be playing each other twice in a 12-year span. Or put it another way: between 2013 and 2025, Florida will make all of one trip to Tuscaloosa to play Alabama. As Brian at mgoblog has noted, that's no longer a conference -- it's two conferences with a scheduling arrangement to work together.

There's no guarantee that a similar set-up would descend upon the Big Ten if more teams were added... but there's not much reason to think that we wouldn't see a similar set-up, either. It is a sensible way to arrange things so long as divisions are in place. Do we really want a future where we play Wisconsin (one of the most even and thrilling rivalries in the Big Ten, if not all of college football) and Illinois (a border rival with a rich history against Iowa) even less than we do now? (Alternatively, it's certainly possible that the addition of new teams from the east -- the most likely destination, given the paucity of options around the midwest and immediate west (sorry, Jamie) -- would result in rejiggered divisions that would send Wisconsin and/or Illinois over to Iowa's division, which would mean more frequent games with the Badgers and Illini, a very desirable outcome from our vantage point.)

There may be reasons to expand -- money, exposure, money, prestige, money -- but short of a radical transformation of college football scheduling (i.e., more conference games, fewer games with money-spinning non-conference patsies) the end result is going to be fewer games against the teams that (for the most part) we've been playing against for a century. Fewer games against the teams that we know, against the teams that we love to hate. The overall advantages of adding Nebraska (probably) outweighed the costs (although I'm still bitter about the damage it's wrought on the Iowa-Wisconsin rivalry), but expanding past 12 teams would effectively be splitting the league in two. We'd be two leagues under one roof, with a rich, intertwined, and shared history... but a future that would share little but revenue statements and logos.

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If you've been an Iowa fan for longer than, oh, six months, then you probably remember this -- Herky the Hawk dressed up as Captain America for Halloween during Iowa's epic beatdown over #5 Michigan State in 2010. It was a great game and a fantastic image. Last fall, I was contacted by by a member of the Iowa Air National Guard. He wanted to know if I could help him locate a high-resolution copy of the Captain America Herky image. I was happy to help out as best I could and at the end of our back-and-forth, he very graciously sent me a couple patches from his squadron, the 124th Fighter Squadron, "HAWKEYES." As you might imagine, they are completely awesome:

He also sent along a pic of a few of their F-16s, which are also absolutely awesome:

And so, in honor of all the brave men and women who have given their lives in defense of this country -- and in honor of all of the brave men and women who are still serving today -- BHGP would like to say "THANK YOU." We are forever in your debt. Happy Memorial Day, everyone.

Regular service will resume tomorrow.

Scenes like this have been rare. (ORIGINAL PHOTO CREDIT: Daily Iowan Media)

Let's cut right to the chase -- Iowa probably isn't going to replace Jack Dahm as head coach.

Hearing that Jack Dahm will return as the Iowa baseball coach for at least one more season, but a new deal hasn't been finalized yet.

— Pat Harty (@PatHarty) May 24, 2012

But should they be looking at replacing Dahm?

The Big Ten Baseball Tournament is going on right now. We would have mentioned it earlier, but, well, Iowa isn't in it. Which is nothing new -- they've been in only 3 of the last 9 Big Ten Baseball Tournaments. (Unlike the Big Ten Tournaments in other sports, the baseball version takes only the top-six finishing teams each year.) Iowa did manage to end the season on something of a high note -- they won their final two games and took a three-game series over the Big Ten regular season champions, Purdue. (Suck it, OMHR.) Unfortunately, that was only the second series they had won all season in conference play (they also took the opening series of B1G play, against Northwestern). They went 10-14 in league play, finishing ninth overall (only Michigan, 8-16, and Northwestern, 6-18) were worse than Iowa).

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Fran? Can you step into my office, please? We need to talk.

Hmm? Oh sure, Gary.

Mr. Barta will be fine thank y--

/withering stare

Uh, right.

/clears throat

Right. So it's about these new rules the NCAA is talking about.

The ones about the on-court decals? Are they going to kill Mediacom Court?

Ha! As if they could ever destroy such a glorious institution and wonderful, consumer-friendly product!

No, Mediacom Court will be just fine. In fact, the boys in Des Moines tell me they have some exciting new ideas about holograms...

Unless that hologram features Sharm Scheuerman taking a dump on a Mediacom logo, I don't care.

Uh, probably not. Your knowledge of Iowa basketball history is incredible, though. Todd just kept watching "Hoosiers" on a continuous loop. ANYWAY --

-- it's about their crackdown on coaching "antics," Fran.

WHAT?

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We've been talking about upcoming football schedules over the past few days (hey, it's the offseason -- we gotta talk about something and I can no longer bring myself to care about realignment unless the Big East or ACC officially go belly-up) and one thing in particular caught my attention about those schedules: the inclusion of an elusive, mysterious program named "Illinois" in the 2015 and 2016 schedules. Who is this "Illinois"? Is it a non-conference opponent (perhaps from the MAC?) that's slipped into the later portion of Iowa's schedule? We've seen that happen before (see: Northern Illinois, 2006 and Western Michigan, 2007).

Is it perhaps a conference opponent? Has Jim Delany surreptitiously added a new team to the Big Ten? That would explain why they're scheduled among so many other conference opponents. They can't possibly be a longstanding member of the Big Ten, right? Surely if they were a conference opponent we would remember playing them, right? Surely, if they were a fellow Big Ten program, we wouldn't have gone six years between games with this "Illinois," right?

The googles inform me that, indeed, they are a fellow Big Ten program. In fact, Iowa has played them a whopping 69 times in past football games! Why, that's the kind of familiarity I might expect out of a series with a program from a border state with similar academic and athletic standing. It's almost like they used to be one of Iowa's rivals.

Hlas has provided a rundown of all the things that will have changed in the world since the last time Iowa and Illinois met -- notably, President Obama's entire first term and the whole Jersey Shore phenomenon. Seriously, the last time Iowa and Illinois played in football, no one had any idea who Snookie and The Situation were. (Ah, blissful ignorance.)

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The Big Ten officially released the conference schedules for the 2015 and 2016 seasons yesterday; that information, coupled with what we already knew about upcoming seasons (the '13 and '14 league schedules were announced last year and Iowa's non-conference slate is virtually set through 2016) means we can take a look at the overall picture for those seasons. It's far too early to make any projections (other than 12-0, Pasadena-bound because WOO GO IOWA AWESOME, of course), but hey -- that doesn't mean we can't take a gander at the way things set up for Iowa football over the next few years.

2013

8/31: Northern Illinois
9/7: Missouri State
9/14: at Iowa State
9/21: Western Michigan
9/28: at Minnesota
10/5: Michigan State
10/12: BYE
10/19: at Ohio State
10/26: Northwestern
11/2: Wisconsin
11/9: at Purdue
11/16: BYE
11/23: Michigan
11/30: at Nebraska

Just like they are this year, Iowa plays only one BCS opponent in non-conference play (Iowa State). In place of a second BCS opponent, we get another delicious MACrifice (although this particular MACrifice, Western Michigan, has not been a very good sacrificial lamb in the past...). It's another schedule designed to get a lot of wins early with three non-BCS foes on the non-conference slate, a date with ISU, and a Big Ten opener against Minnesota. Iowa makes only one trip outside the state of Iowa in its first six games.

This is also the first year under the new scheduling paradigm where Ohio State and Wisconsin rotate back on the schedule, replacing Indiana and Penn State. That should make conference play more difficult, but it also restores one of Iowa's best rivalries: the dead-even Iowa-Wisconsin rivalry (42-42-2). It also brings back Ohio State for only the third time since 2006. Ferentz has had less success against the Buckeyes than any other B1G squad (he's just 1-7 as Iowa's head coach against OSU). It will also be Ferentz's first crack at Urban Meyer as Ohio State head coach. The last time Iowa played a Meyer-coached team, this happened. (sigh)

The season concludes with a Michigan-Nebraska doubleshot; interestingly enough, that's the norm in several of the now-announced schedules. The placement of the Nebraska game is no mystery -- it's been clear since they joined the league in 2011 that they would replace Minnesota as Iowa's traditional* season-ending foe. The inclusion of Michigan as Iowa's penultimate foe is more intriguing, though -- either random chance has led the Delanybot 9000 to spit out that matchup as Iowa's second-to-last opponent in three of four years or the Delanybot 9000 wants that game there because it suspects the game might have implications for the division title race. Just a thought.

* Yes, Iowa has played multiple teams in season finales -- but until last year they had played Minnesota in that spot almost exclusively since 1980.

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This guy would have become very familiar to Big Ten fans... (ORIGINAL PHOTO CREDIT: ESPN)

When I did my last post on Big Ten relegation, there was one factor that I didn't really tackle: the year-after-year effect the system would have if it was actually in place. In other words, what would happen next if a team actually was relegated? In my post, Indiana was relegated from the Big Ten several years in a row, which would obviously be impossible in reality -- after they were relegated once, they'd need to spend at least one year trying to get promoted back into the Big Ten. At most, a team in real life can be relegated from the same division every other year. (Such a team, if it existed, would be a perfect example of the "yo-yo team.")

Luckily, SBN's own Bill Connelly (with a little help from Jeff Sagarin's computer rankings) crunched the numbers and took a look at what might have happened to relegated teams in their new surroundings (as well as promoted teams in their new surroundings). The results are pretty fascinating -- go take a look. Granted, it's not a perfect simulation by any means -- Sagarin ratings aren't infallible and, as Bill notes, it's impossible to measure the true impact of the "butterfly effect" of relegation and promotion in terms of coach firings, player transfers, recruiting, etc. But it gives us an excellent starting point. Let's take a look at what some past Iowa seasons might have looked like under this model.

2006

We start here since this is the first year where relegated teams have been removed from their initial conference and replaced with a newly promoted team. In Iowa's case, this means a road trip to Champaign to play a bad Illinois team is replaced with a road trip to Akron to play an also-bad Akron team. Iowa beat that Illinois team and there's not much reason to think they wouldn't have also defeated that Akron team, especially since the game fell in September, before the Great Implosion Of '06 killed the season. Not a whole lot different this year.

Also, this is the last year in the simulation in which Iowa-Iowa State would be a matchup between BCS teams. Iowa State gets relegated to Conference USA at the end of this season and they spend the remainder of the simulation in the cozy confines of CUSA. What impact would this have had on the Cyclones and the Iowa-Iowa State rivalry? Well, Dan McCarney definitely still gets fired at the end of 2006, but Gene Chizik probably isn't so eager to jump to a C-USA team... which ultimately means he never spurns ISU and Jamie Pollard, meaning there's no "inconsolable" meme... damn! But Iowa probably still keeps playing Iowa State and they probably keep playing at Ames every other year (for a while) -- there are still contracts to be honored, after all. Of course, if Iowa State spends the remainder of the Aughts in C-USA, you can be sure that Iowa is negotiating hard to get the terms of their playing relationship altered in the next Iowa-Iowa State football contract. Hello, games in Ames once every 3-4 years...

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The Iowa football recruiting news has slowed down a bit since the whirlwind pace of last month, but it hasn't stopped -- Iowa landed a new commit today, QB Nic Shimonek out of Mildred Independent School (2A) in Corsicana, Texas. The interwebs inform me that Corsicana is a relatively small town (25,000) fifty miles south of Dallas. Unlike several of Iowa's early recruits, Shimonek is less of a known quantity in the creepmaster circles: he's currently unranked by Rivals, Scout, 247Sports, and ESPN. In fact, per Rivals, he didn't have any known offers before committing to Iowa, though he did have "interest" from Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and SMU in addition to Iowa. Suck it, June Jones.

While he lacks recruiting hype, Shimonek does have fairly prototypical size for a QB recruit (6-4, 200) and he had very solid numbers as a junior (3000+ yards, 38 TD, 3 INT). (He's also a pretty good baseball player, it seems -- he threw a no-hitter last weekend.) That said, Shimonek's commitment does come as a surprise -- it's rare that Iowa lands a player this early that has so little recruiting hype (they usually get the unranked/no offers guys in January or February) and Shimonek was so far off the radar that he didn't even make the large and impressively comprehensive recruiting "big board" that Hawkeye Report maintains ($).

Of course, it's impossible to overlook the fact that Shimonek is from Texas and Iowa just hired an offensive coordinator from... Texas. Shimonek's recruitment smells like a Greg Davis Special, which I don't mean as a pejorative: I assume this is a kid Davis saw and liked a lot and thought would be a good fit in his offense, recruiting hype (or lack thereof) be damned. And that's fine -- there's plenty of time for the recruiting hype to arrive, for whatever it's worth. I would guess that Shimonek will be a low 3* recruit when he does get ranked and if his senior year production improves on his (already-good) junior year numbers, he could certainly end up with offers from several programs who only have "interest" now.

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(Bumping this up -- and reopening comments -- because it's Relegation Week at the SBN mothership this week. I also added 2011 data to this post. -- Ross)

If you've been following the action in European soccer at all over the past few weeks, you've likely been gripped by the drama of the annual promotion/relegation battles that pop up in every league. Relegation adds immense drama to games involving bottom-dwelling teams -- they're fighting to remain at their current level and not only maintain current levels of prestige, but (more importantly) maintain current levels of income; the drop in filthy lucre for teams that drop down a level can be immense. From the standpoint of pure competition, it's also a much fairer system than what we see in American sports, since strong play is rewarded (with opportunities to compete in more lucrative leagues) and poor play is penalized (by being forced to play in less lucrative leagues). Conversely, in American sports, poor play is either not penalized (i.e., college, where Indiana can flounder along for an entire decade but collect the same fat checks from the Big Ten conference as the teams that win the league) or actively rewarded (i.e., pros, where teams like the Pirates, Clippers, and Lions are rewarded with high draft picks to enable them to select the best incoming talent).

I freely acknowledge that relegation will, of course, never ever happen in American sports, at either the professional or collegiate levels. The formats of leagues here are simply too different and there are just too many entrenched interests working against it, no matter how much it might liven things up or create fairer overall systems. But that doesn't mean that we can't still imagine a parallel universe where relegation does exist in America.

College football works fairly well for this thought exercise, since it's already evolved into a heavily tiered system: there's a top flight of BCS schools, a second flight of non-BCS schools in the FBS, a third flight of FCS schools, and so on. Since this is an Iowa blog, I'm going to confine this exercise to the Big Ten and I'm going to use the MAC for the second division, since it's a collection of schools in Big Ten states that all play in that mid-major, non-BCS tier.

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The Big Ten and ACC announced the matchups for the 2012 ACC-Big Ten Challenge today and our mighty Iowa Hawkeyes were drawn against the mysterious Hokies of Virginia Tech for a game in Blacksburg, VA on November 27, 2012. (TV is still TBA but let's assume it's another ESPNU shindig.) What the hell is a Hokie, anyway? Surprise! It has nothing to do with turkeys. But isn't their mascot kind of a turkey? What's with that?

The origin of the term "Gobblers" is disputed, with one story claiming it was coined in the early 1900s as a description of how student athletes would "gobble" up their more than ample servings of food. Another story attributes it to the fact that the 1909 football coach, Branch Bocock, wanted to stimulate better spirit amongst his players and initiated them into an impromptu and informal "Gobbler Club."

Thus, the name was already popular when Fred Meade, a local resident chosen by the student body to serve as the school's mascot, had a large turkey pull him in a cart at a football game in 1913. The school's president halted the cart pulling after one game because he thought it was cruel to the turkey. Meade continued to parade his mascot, which he had trained to gobble on command, up and down the sidelines--and did so until another "turkey trainer" took over in 1924 to continue the tradition. Enthusiastic fans and sports writers adopted the "Gobbler" nickname and began to use it regularly. In 1936, a costumed Gobbler joined the live gobbler for at least one game. The use of a live gobbler mascot continued into the 1950s, and the first permanent costumed Gobbler took the field in the fall of 1962.

College football used to be such a wonderfully strange sport back in the olden days. But enough about football! We're playing Virginia Tech in hoopyball! What should we know about VT when it comes to hoops?

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Yesterday we talked about the offense, so today it's time to look at the defense...

1) What's the frequency, Phillip?

For the first time since 1998*, someone other than Norm Parker will be crafting the defensive gameplans and calling the shots for the Iowa defense. Which means... what, exactly? Not huge, sweeping changes, that much we know -- there's no 3-4 or 3-3-5 on the horizon. We're still going to be staying in that base 4-3 most of the time. We're still going to be using many of the same cover-2 principles we've always used. But Parker has openly discussed the notion of utilizing more press coverage, which would be a change. He's also openly discussed the notion of shortening the cushion Iowa defensive backs have routinely given receivers (a long overdue change). And he's openly discussed the need to blitz more -- the open practice alone saw more blitzes from linebackers and cornerbacks than we've typically seen during the season. Like Norm, Phil Parker would probably prefer to see the defensive line generate most of the pressure, but he seems to realize that that may be a tall order for this year's defensive line. That sort of adaptability looks like a very welcome development for the Iowa defense.

* Yeah, yeah, Norm missed a handful of games in 2010 and Phil Parker and Darrell Wilson filled in for him. That still seemed like Parker and Wilson trying to run the system Norm had established, not a defense of their own devising. The 2012 defense should be all Phil.

2) The not-so-great Wall of Iowa.

About that defensive line... it's going to be rough. The first team defensive line at the end of spring was Joe Gaglione and Riley McMinn (ends) and Steve Bigach and Darian Cooper (tackles). Gaglione and Bigach are redshirt seniors who have played only sparingly in their Iowa careers; McMinn and Cooper are redshirt freshmen who have yet to see any live game action. Yep, we've got nothing to worry about. If he's healthy by the end of fall practice, Dominic Alvis likely occupies one of those defensive end spots, which would be a welcome development since a) he has some real experience and b) he showed genuine flashes of potential last season.

Even so, this figures to be the worst Iowa defensive line since 2005. Worse than last year? Yes -- there's no one on this defensive line as good as Mike Daniels or Broderick Binns. We're probably looking at defensive line-by-committee approach, although who the remaining players in that committee is still TBD. The depth chart lists a pair of sophomores (Mike Hardy and Louis Trinca-Pasat) and a pair of redshirt freshmen (Dean Tsopanides and Melvin Spears), so it could come from there. It could include Carl Davis if he can ever get healthy and begin to live up to the potential his massive size promises. It could be an incoming freshmen like Faith Ekakitie or Jaleel Johnson, who have uncommon size for a freshman Iowa defensive lineman (6-2, 255 and 6-2, 277, respectively). Or, hell, it could be BHGP favorite Casey McMillan, who made the switch from offensive line to defensive lien during bowl prep last season. Either way, this defensive line is going to take its lumps -- hopefully they can get better in a hurry under new defensive line coach Reese Morgan.

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So what do we know about Iowa football after spring practice? A little bit more than we did a few weeks ago.

1) The offense is going to need all the practice it can get.

It's a good thing Iowa doesn't play a game until the Northern Illinois game at Soldier Field on September 1st. Iowa had 15 practices this spring to install and get accustomed to Greg Davis' offense. They'll have another 15 practices this summer/fall to continue to improve their understanding of the offense. They'll also have whatever unsupervised team activities they do this summer (hopefully Vandenberg is organizing some drills with the receivers and tight ends). And that's good because based on the evidence from this spring, they're going to need all that time to get up to speed. The offense didn't look very sharp in the open practice -- lots of miscommunication, especially in the passing game -- and other reports from practices suggested that it wasn't just an issue at the open practice. But none of that is surprising -- you expect some growing pains when you change offenses. Chances are good that the offense in September will look much better than the offense in April. Let's just be happy they don't play a meaningful game until then.

2) All aboard the H.M.S. Mandenberg.

There was some hope earlier this winter -- in the wake of James Vandenberg's somewhat topsy-turvy junior season and with the arrival of a new offensive coordinator not beholden to any pre-existing players -- that there would be an open quarterback contest and perhaps a challenger would emerge to threaten Vandenberg's iron grip on the job -- or at least push him to reach another level in his play. After spring ball, one thing is pretty clear: Iowa football will sink or swim with the Mandenberg in 2013. He appears to be well ahead of the challengers -- at this point, we probably just need to hope that he's able to solve the consistency issues that plagued him in 2011.

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We broke down Iowa's performance at each weight in the Looking Ahead series (click here if you missed it), so now it's time to look at the big picture. What are the top five teams from this year's NCAA Tournament losing from their 2012 squads? What are they returning? What are realistic projections for 2013?

For the record, I think only three of that top five -- Penn State, Minnesota, and Iowa -- are legit title contenders. I don't think anyone else has the depth or the studs that those teams have to compete for a title. But Oklahoma State has a shot if everything breaks their way and I included Cornell out of respect for their strong showings in recent years.

Iowa's point total was almost entirely a product of five wrestlers -- Matt McDonough (125), Tony Ramos (133), Montell Marion (141), Derek St. John (157), and Bobby Telford (HWT). Those five accounted for 89% of Iowa's 107.5 points at the NCAA Tournament. The good news is that almost all of those points are returning in 2013 -- Iowa's only significant departure is Montell Marion at 141. Iowa returns 89.5 points in 2013 -- but we know that won't be enough to win an NCAA Championship most years (and almost certainly not with Penn State returning with a still-loaded team). So the question becomes: where can they make up points?

Don't look to McD. He contributed 27 points in 2012 and the only way he's going to improve that figure is by picking up 2-3 more pins, which will be hard to do. If he can match that 27-point total in 2013, we should be satisfied. Ramos added 18.5 points and a 3rd place finish in 2012 -- can he do better? Maybe. Oliver's expected departure from 133 could move Tony into the #2 spot at the weight (behind Ohio State's Logan Stieber), since he's had significant success against virtually everyone else at the weight. He should be a good bet to at least match his '12 efforts. Iowa figures to take a hit at 141; no matter who ultimately fills that spot, it's probably not reasonable to expect him to duplicate Marion's NCAA runner-up finish. Just making the podium and getting double-digit points would be a good outcome. (One area where Dwieza or Ballweg may be able to improve on Marion: bonus points.)

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Hola, mi amigos! Donde esta la biblioteca?

Last night's Hamsterdam thread was rather active, what with all the liveblogging of Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III (we can't resist), and even a little Chronicles of Riddick mixed in for good measure. So let's get a new open thread going for the rest of the weekend. Today is one of the finer sporting days of the year and it offers options for almost every taste. (All times CT)

* Soccer? The FA Cup Final between Chelsea and Liverpool is on Fox Soccer Channel right now.

* Basketball? Game 4 of Magic-Pacers is on ESPN at 1pm, Game 3 of Clippers-Grizzlies is on ESPN at 3:30pm, Game 4 of Thunder-Mavericks is on TNT at 6:30pm, and Game 4 of Spurs-Jazz on TNT at 9pm.

* Hockey? Game 4 of the Rangers-Caps series is on NBC right now.

* Boxing? Just a little fight called Miguel Cotto v. Floyd Mayweather tonight on PPV.

* UFC? UFC on FOX 3 tonight (on, uh, FOX), headlined by Jim Miller v. Nate Diaz and Josh Koscheck v. Johny Hendricks.

* Horse racing? The Kentucky Derby is on NBC later this afternoon (probably around 5pm).

* Baseball? Well, there's lots of that, too. Check local listings.

* Midget bowling? Sorry, I think you're out of luck there.

The usual open thread rules apply: no porn, no politics, no slurs, no religion, no links to illegal online streams, etc.

IOWA CITY, IA (AP) -- While at a press conference to discuss Iowa's controversial new Nike Pro Combat Uniforms, Kirk Ferentz dropped a bombshell on new Big XII athletic commissioner (and former University of Iowa athletic director) Bob Bowsly, accusing him of being a vampire. "That no-good jerkface stole my vitality," exclaimed Ferentz, upon being asked about his former boss being appointed the commissioner of the Big XII conference. "It's an outrage is what it is. That oily little life-thief took away all my youthful vigor. Honestly, just look at what I looked like when I came to Iowa City in 1999." (archival image below)

(ORIGINAL PHOTO SOURCE: Buzz Orr / Gazette)

"Look at that dashing young stallion! I don't need to tell you that I was a handsome devil, it's all right there. The thick, dark hair. The strong cheekbones. The jaw that could crack a walnut. Those piercing eyes. I was the sexiest thing on this sideline since Evy was roaming it in a fur coat. Now just look at me."

(ORIGINAL PHOTO CREDIT: Reese Strickland / Getty Images)

"My hair's gone gray, my cheekbones are sagging, my jaw couldn't open a jello package, and my eyes don't look so piercing anymore, do they? And it's all Bowlsby's fault." When asked to elaborate, Ferentz noted that "We had a deal, Bowlsby and I. In return for me not exposing him as a devious and soulless creature of the night, he would leave town and take over some other program. I thought Stanford would be fine -- the world would never miss a few more hippies and it was enough of a sadsack program that he'd either get trapped there or get fired and slink away to some even sorrier program. Sure, they had a lot of success in other sports, but we all know that football is what matters, right? That's the moneymaker. For God's sake, they had Walt Harris as their coach!

"And then he hired Jim Harbaugh, which I thought was pretty funny. Ol' Bobby, making the same old mistakes again and again. Another boy wonder coach who was a stud ballplayer in college? I thought for sure he'd be another Alford! How the hell was I supposed to know that he could actually coach?"

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PREVIOUS INSTALLMENTS: 125 | 133 | 141 | 149 | 157 | 165 | 174 | 184 | 197

A note about the tables below: the left-hand column lists the 2012 All-Americans; wrestlers that are highlighted are non-seniors expected to return in 2012-13. I gave unique, color-coded highlights to the members of the teams that should be major contenders next year (Iowa, Penn State, Oklahoma State, Cornell, Minnesota, and Wisconsin); returning wrestlers from other teams got a plain gray highlight. The middle column lists wrestlers expected to return in 2012-13 who didn't attain All-America status, but who are still threats worth knowing about. The right-hand column lists some of the notable freshmen who could cause a stir next year, including both freshmen who redshirted in 2011-2012 and incoming freshmen for 2012-2013. These lists aren't comprehensive, so feel free to mention anyone I may have omitted.

Also: most of the time, the look-ahead to next year assumes guys won't be moving weights at all (unless otherwise specified); obviously in some cases guys will be moving to different weights.

HWT: Bobby Telford (RS FR, 29-9) and Blake Rasing (SR, 13-6) Big Ten Runner-Up | NCAA 5th-place Finisher
The Reasonable Expectation:

So what can we expect out of Iowa at this weight? Can we even really make a prediction until we know who the regular starter will be? Even then, how can we make a prediction when we don't know whether "Good Blake" or "Bad Blake" will show up if Rasing gets the nod or how Telford will handle big-time competition? Good questions, all. We'll start with the "easiest" question first -- who wins the spot? For now, I'm putting my marker down on Telford. Yes, Rasing is the defending Big Ten Champion and he has considerable experience and wrestled very well at times last year. But Telford seems like the real deal and I think his aggressive approach and attack-happy (for heavyweights, anyway) style will allow him to overcome his lack of experience and earn the nod here. So what can we expect from him if he does take the starting job? Matching Rasing's Big Ten Championship from a year ago will be a tall order for the redshirt freshman, particularly since five of the InterMat Top 20 hail from the Big Ten -- but I think a top-four finish is attainable. As far as NCAAs go, the big question is whether or not he can bull his way onto the podium and earn All-American status -- and I think he can (albeit at one of the lower spots, like 6-8th).

The Result: 2nd place at Big Ten Tournament; 5th place at NCAA Tournament

The Verdict: In a way, Bobby Telford's 2011-12 season makes a nice three-act play. In Act I, our hero makes his triumphant debut, winning acclaim and finding success at every turn. Life is good. In Act II, adversity strikes and our hero stumbles and fails. Life sucks. In Act III, our hero rises from the depths to find success anew, having learned a valuable lesson from his previous failure(s). This being real life and not a Shakespearean comedy, this story doesn't end with a wedding and everyone happy (on the bright side, it also doesn't end like a Shakespearean tragedy -- with everyone dead), nor even a grand moment of triumph. Telford finished 2nd at the Big Ten Tournament and 5th at the NCAA Tournament, which is still a disappointment in a sport where the ultimate measure of success is a championship.

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PREVIOUS INSTALLMENTS: 125 | 133 | 141 | 149 | 157 | 165 | 174 | 184

A note about the tables below: the left-hand column lists the 2012 All-Americans; wrestlers that are highlighted are non-seniors expected to return in 2012-13. I gave unique, color-coded highlights to the members of the teams that should be major contenders next year (Iowa, Penn State, Oklahoma State, Cornell, Minnesota, and Wisconsin); returning wrestlers from other teams got a plain gray highlight. The middle column lists wrestlers expected to return in 2012-13 who didn't attain All-America status, but who are still threats worth knowing about. The right-hand column lists some of the notable freshmen who could cause a stir next year, including both freshmen who redshirted in 2011-2012 and incoming freshmen for 2012-2013. These lists aren't comprehensive, so feel free to mention anyone I may have omitted.

Also: most of the time, the look-ahead to next year assumes guys won't be moving weights at all (unless otherwise specified); obviously in some cases guys will be moving to different weights.

197: Tomas Lira (SO, 11-10) and Grant Gambrall (JR, 12-12) Big Ten DNP | DNQ for NCAA Tournament
The Reasonable Expectation:

Again, until we see what Lira looks like against some actual 197ers -- and, more importantly, some actual decent 197ers -- it's pretty much impossible to form any sort of rational expectation for his performance this year. He's a complete mystery right now. At the moment, though, I'd be pretty happy with a .500 record in dual meets and simply qualifying for the NCAA Tournament -- anything beyond that would be gravy and even that might be expecting too much. This is not a weight for Iowa where it pays to dream big. For now this looks like the annual hole in the line-up (last year it was 149), so we may just need to be content with whatever success we can scrape together here.

The Result: DNP at Big Ten Tournament; DNQ at NCAA Tournament

The Verdict: Well, I got at least one thing right -- this was the hole in the lineup (or at least a hole). Unfortunately, the results didn't even meet the admittedly low bar I set before the season. A .500 record in dual meets? Grant Gambrall, Tomas Lira, and Vinnie Wagner combined to go 6-14 in dual meets this season. Qualifying for the NCAA Tournament? Nope -- Wagner went 0-2 at the Big Ten Tournament, ending his hopes and ending a miserable season overall for Iowa's 197ers. In all competition at 197, Gambrall, Lira, and Wagner went 19-21, with most of those wins coming against overmatched opponents at events like the Lindenwood and Grand View Opens.

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PREVIOUS INSTALLMENTS: 125 | 133 | 141 | 149 | 157 | 165 | 174

A note about the tables below: the left-hand column lists the 2012 All-Americans; wrestlers that are highlighted are non-seniors expected to return in 2012-13. I gave unique, color-coded highlights to the members of the teams that should be major contenders next year (Iowa, Penn State, Oklahoma State, Cornell, Minnesota, and Wisconsin); returning wrestlers from other teams got a plain gray highlight. The middle column lists wrestlers expected to return in 2012-13 who didn't attain All-America status, but who are still threats worth knowing about. The right-hand column lists some of the notable freshmen who could cause a stir next year, including both freshmen who redshirted in 2011-2012 and incoming freshmen for 2012-2013. These lists aren't comprehensive, so feel free to mention anyone I may have omitted.

Also: most of the time, the look-ahead to next year assumes guys won't be moving weights at all (unless otherwise specified); obviously in some cases guys will be moving to different weights.

184: Vinnie Wagner (SR, 9-12) and Grant Gambrall (JR, 12-12) Big Ten 5th-place Finisher | NCAA DNP
The Reasonable Expectation:

Needless to say, this makes predictions for Gambrall rather maddening. Frankly, his own Jekyll and Hyde performances last year would have made things difficult enough -- never mind the staggering depth and quality of this weight nationally. But I still have to put my marker down somewhere, so I'll go with a 3rd place finish in the Big Ten (finishing behind Wright and Steinhaus) and a lower All-America finish (5-8th place) at the NCAA Tournament. Mind you, better finishes than that would hardly shock me -- he beat many of the other guys in the top 5-10 last year and his NCAA Tournament run was certainly impressive. At the moment, though, it's not yet clear if that was just the result of Gambrall putting everything together for one hot run over a weekend or if he truly has elevated his game to another level and it was a precursor to the sort of dominant wrestling we'll see out of him this year. I lean toward the former at the moment -- but I'd be happy to be proven wrong.

The Result: 5th place at Big Ten Tournament; DNP at NCAA Tournament

The Verdict: Did I say Ethen Lofthouse was the new frontrunner for the "most frustrating wrestler on the Iowa team" award with Montell Marion's departure? I may have been premature in handing that honor to Lofthouse; based on the last two years, Grant Gambrall could easily give him a run for his money. I'm loathe to criticize him for last season too harshly; he suffered a concussion in the off-season that clearly impacted his preparation for the season and put him well behind schedule (and above his usual 184-lb. weight class). There have been varying reports about the role the concussion played in Gambrall's struggles (some say a lot, some say a little) and I have no way of knowing which reports (if any) are true. Nor do I have any desire to criticize a young man dealing with concussions; if the last few years have taught us anything, it's that concussions are 1) grossly under-reported in athletics, 2) a very serious problem, with long-term implications that we're just beginning to understand.

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So a college football playoff is finally -- finally! -- upon us. The exact details are still going to get ironed out (probably this summer), but the current BCS system as we know it will be gone baby gone after 2013. Come 2014 there will be some form of 4-team playoff in play. Huzzah.

But what would that have done for Iowa in the past? Or the Big Ten in general? Or the Rose Bowl? Let's take a look. For the sake of argument, we're going to use the final BCS standings from each season. I'm also going to assume that the Rose Bowl wouldn't have been one of the semifinal games and that it would have preferred to stay off to the side. I'm also going to assume that it would have continued to value its Big Ten/Pac-10 relationships over all else, so we would have had a Big Ten/Pac-10 showdown in that bowl every year.

(Edit: The exact plan that's going to be used is in flux; Pacific Takes has a breakdown of what things might have looked like under some different plans that appear to be in favor now. But who knows how things will shake out...)

1998

BCS Top Four: #1 Tennessee, #2 Florida State, #3 Kansas State, #4 Ohio State

Actual Rose Bowl: #9 Wisconsin v. #5 UCLA

New Rose Bowl: #9 Wisconsin v. #5 UCLA

Probably no change to the Rose Bowl here. Wisconsin, Ohio State, and Michigan all finished 7-1 in league play. Wisconsin's lone league loss was to Michigan, Michigan's lone league loss was to Ohio State, and Ohio State's lone league loss was to Michigan State (Sparty... YESSSS?). Wisconsin got the Rose Bowl nod in real life by virtue of the fact that they'd gone the longest between Rose Bowl appearances (Michigan had been there in '98 and Ohio State had been there in '97). In the final four model, though, Ohio State is removed from the equation to be a part of the final four and Wisconsin gets the nod over Michigan since the Wolverines have two non-conference losses (to Notre Dame and Syracuse). UCLA finished 8-0 in the Pac-10, so there's no controversy over their selection.

Under this model, Kansas State's shot at the national title isn't killed by their Big 12 Championship Game loss to Texas A&M (as it was in real life). Kansas State-Florida State and Tennesse-Ohio State look like fun semifinal games.

What if there was a conference champions-only rule in place? Kansas State no longer qualifies for the Final Four, meaning Ohio State moves up a slot and UCLA occupies the last slot. The semifinals become Tennessee v. UCLA and Florida State v. Ohio State, while the Rose Bowl becomes Wisconsin v. Arizona.

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Hey, it's been a while since we had an installment of Hawkeyes Behaving Badly*, hasn't it? Wait no longer -- wrestler Bobby Telford got arrested for public intoxication the weekend before last.

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- Iowa heavyweight wrestler Bobby Telford faces a charge of public intoxication after an incident last weekend outside an Iowa City bar.

A police reported cited by the Iowa City Press-Citizen says the 20-year-old Telford was found leaning against the front of the bar late the night of April 20. Police say he smelled of alcohol and appeared to be intoxicated.

Unconfirmed reports said the bar won the match, 2-0. (GET IT? BECAUSE TELFORD WAS LEANING AGAINST THE BAR AND HEAVYWEIGHT WRESTLING IS REALLY SLOW AND BOR -- oh forget it.) In any event, Telford got arrested and the incident was duly reported (a week later).

There was no comment from Iowa wrestling coach Tom Brands on what Telford's punishment would be, but I suspect Telford might be getting very well-acquainted with the steps at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. I wouldn't expect this incident to have much (if any) impact on Telford's status with the team or his starting role. A 20-year old was arrested for being drunk. Oh, the horror.

* Strictly speaking, getting arrested for being drunk is pretty far down the list of bad behaviors, especially for a 20-year old in a college town. But it's also still technically illegal.