Oct. 26, 2003
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This week’s ESPN/USA Today Top 25
Coach Kirk Ferentz’s 2003 Iowa football team climbed two spots in this week’s ESPN/USA Today To 25, coming in at No. 14 after registering its 26-14 victory over Penn State last Saturday inside historic Kinnick Stadium. The Hawkeyes collected 757 points from the coaches who vote in the weekly poll.
Iowa, which entertains Illinois Saturday at 11 a.m. inside Kinnick, moved to 6-2 overall and 2-2 in the Big Ten Conference with its fourth straight victory over the Nittany Lions. The Hawkeyes are one of six league teams included in this week’s ESPN poll. Ohio State (7th), Michigan State (10th), Michigan 12th), Purdue (17th) and Minnesota (19th) are also listed.
Oklahoma and Miami, Fla., held their positions at the first and second teams in ESPN’s list.
Iowa’s game against Illinois will be televised live on ESPN Plus. The list of television stations that will carry that broadcast includes CBS 2 in Cedar Rapids and KDSM in Des Moines. A complete list will be available later this week.
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With six victories, the Iowa Hawkeyes are bowl eligible for the third straight season under Kirk Ferentz.
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The Hawkeyes and Fighting Illini will be playing before the fourth straight sellout crowd inside Kinnick Stadium. A limited number of tickets are available, however, for Iowa’s Fan Appreciation Day, Nov. 15, when Iowa and Minnesota will meet in the annual game that determines possession of Floyd of Rosedale, the bronzed pig awarded to the winner.
Floyd currently resides in Iowa City in recognition of Iowa’s victory last season over the Golden Gophers in the Metrodome, a win that completed the Hawkeyes’ perfect run through the 2001 league season.
Iowa’s victory over Penn State meant that the 2003 Hawkeyes were bowl eligible. This season marks the third straight bowl season for the Hawkeyes. Iowa played in the Alamo Bowl after the 2001 season and the FedEx Orange Bowl after the 2002 season.
The 2003 Big Ten champion will play in the 2004 Rose Bowl unless it is one of the teams invited to play in the 2003 Nokia Sugar Bowl – this year’s national championship game as part of the Bowl Championship Series.
The Big Ten also has bowl game agreements with the Capital One Bowl (Orland, Fla.), Outback Bowl (Tampa, Fla.), the Alamo Bowl (San Antonio, Texas), the Sun Bowl (El Paso, Texas), the Music City Bowl (Nashville, Tenn.) and the Motor City Bowl (Detroit, Mich.)