The 1990 Hawkeyes won their third and final Big Ten crown under Hayden Fry.
The College Football Playoff landscape continues to change by the day, and it now seems likely that another major alteration will occur in the coming years.
The 12-team format is only entering its third season, but to no one's surprise, Power Four athletic directors (specifically the Big Ten) aren't satisfied. There's too much money involved for a 24-team bracket not to happen in the near future, so knowing this, HawkeyeRoundtable.com got curious.
Iowa has never qualified for the College Football Playoff, but it would've sent a plethora of teams to a 24-team event under both Hayden Fry and Kirk Ferentz.
So for the rest of the summer, we're taking you all on a trip down memory lane and sharing our list of every Fry and Ferentz team that would've qualified for a 24-team bracket.
We've officially journeyed through the 1980s, where five Iowa teams would've qualified for a 24-team playoff. Check out the final playoff team of the '80s here.
You're probably asking yourself why we ended our 1980s playoff articles in 1987, but the simple answer is because Iowa football took a sharp decline in 1988 (6-4-3) and 1989 (5-6).
A rebound wasn't out of the question in 1990, but no one could've prepared themselves for the season that followed.
The Rundown
After going 5-6 in 1989, to say Iowa needed a rebound in 1990 would be an understatement. The program was long removed from its 1960s and 1970s woes, but things were starting to feel stagnant for Fry and Co.
The Hawkeyes entered 1990 unranked, but began the season on a tear. The Week 3 loss at defending national champion Miami was expected, but a victory at then-No. 18 Michigan State the following week vaulted Iowa into the national polls, where it would remain for the rest of the season.
Big road wins over No. 10 Michigan and No. 5 Illinois (54-28) carried the Hawkeyes to 7-1 overall and a perfect 5-0 mark in Big Ten play. All Iowa had to do to return to the Rose Bowl was win two of its last three games, but the Hawkeyes made it very complicated for themselves.
Unranked Ohio State ended Iowa's national title hopes with a one-point victory at Kinnick Stadium, but the real problem happened two weeks later at Minnesota. Much like today, the Hawkeyes were dominating the Gophers at this point, winning six of seven before the 1989 matchup.
A win in Minneapolis would give Iowa an outright Big Ten title, but the 5-5 Gophers spoiled the party with a 31-24 upset victory. The Hawkeyes still clinched the Big Ten's Rose Bowl berth due to head-to-head wins over the other three co-champions (Michigan, Illinois, and Michigan State), but the loss still left a sour taste to close a terrific season.
Iowa's late-season swoon may have had an impact on its clash with Washington in the 1991 Rose Bowl, as the Huskies used a 33-7 halftime lead to win, 46-34. The Hawkeyes finished the season 8-4 overall and 18th in the final polls.
The Bracket
The AP poll expanded to ranking the top 25 teams in 1989, so this is the first year we can actually use a full 24-team bracket.
Based on the pre-bowl season rankings, No. 17 Iowa would be sent to the top-half of the bracket for a rematch in Champaign against No. 16 Illinois. Should the Hawkeyes escape the Illini, they would have to play top-seeded Colorado, which would've been a tough out.
The season did crumble near the end, but Iowa could've been capable of a deep run in this bracket back in 1990 because of strong quarterback play from veteran Matt Rodgers.
But there's a reason this is only a hypothetical, though. Colorado and Georgia Tech would controversially share the national championship in 1990, a result that remains disputed to this day.
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HawkeyeRoundtable publisher Brad Schultz has covered the Iowa Hawkeyes since 2023. To send him story ideas, scoops, or criticize his writing, reach him at [email protected]
