Rece Davis didn’t hide it: he was pulling for Iowa on Saturday, and not just because of the matchup on the field. He had College GameDay in mind.
ESPN is heading to Iowa City for Week 5 of the 2026 college football season, and Iowa’s win over Michigan helped clear the path. On Sunday’s edition of the College GameDay Podcast, Davis said he was rooting for the Hawkeyes with the show’s next stop in the back of his mind.
“I didn’t want Iowa to beat Michigan because I wanted Michigan to lose, or because I’m some big Iowa fan,” Davis said, per Awful Announcing.
“I root for the show, and it was going to be really, really good for the show if Iowa won on Saturday. They did. And now, a big showdown with Ohio State coming up next week.”
That win bumped Iowa to No. 14 in the AP Top 25, setting up a top-15 clash when the Hawkeyes host No. 5 Ohio State on Saturday.
Davis’ comments also leave plenty of room for the “what if” conversation in Starkville. If Michigan had handled Iowa, Alabama vs.
Mississippi State would have been the highest-ranked game in the AP Top 25. Alabama is No. 7 and Mississippi State sits at No. 16, with both teams unbeaten.
Even so, GameDay might have landed on Iowa City anyway. The first four shows of the 2026 season all came from SEC campuses - LSU, Texas, Ole Miss and Tennessee - and that stretch drew criticism from fans and media members who felt ESPN was leaning too hard toward the conference.
This week, Davis and the crew are headed into Big Ten country. The SEC chatter, though, isn’t going away anytime soon.
In Other News...
Iowa Just Landed A Spotlight Week Hawkeye Fans Rarely Get
Iowas win over Michigan has done more than shake up the AP Poll. It pushed the Hawkeyes up to No. 14 and brought ESPNs College GameDay to Iowa City for the first time in 20 years, giving the program a rare national stage at a time when the attention around the Big Ten is usually pointed elsewhere. Braeden Jackson added to the weekend by earning Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors after his kick return touchdown against Michigan, another sign that Iowas surge is coming with more than just one headline.
For a fan base that knows how hard it can be to get this kind of spotlight, the bigger question is how long Iowa can keep it. The Big Ten picture is crowded, with Ohio States Jeremiah Smith piling up national honors after his own standout day against Illinois, and the conference race still carrying the usual mix of injury updates and looming matchups. Iowa has the kind of platform many teams spend a season chasing, and now the challenge is turning a marquee week into something that lasts beyond it. [Read more 🡒]
Iowa Just Entered A Postseason Debate Fans Didnt Expect
Iowas win over Michigan did more than strengthen its resume. It pushed the Hawkeyes into a postseason conversation that felt unlikely not long ago, with several outlets now projecting everything from a trip to the Citrus Bowl to a possible College Football Playoff berth as a lower seed. The range of forecasts says plenty about how much this team has changed the conversation around itself in a short period of time.
The next step is where things get real. Upcoming games against Ohio State and Washington are being treated as pivotal to Iowas postseason outlook, and the split among projections shows just how much is still unsettled. For a program that usually enters this stretch trying to climb into the bowl picture, the debate now is whether the Hawkeyes can keep pushing all the way into the sports highest tier. [Read more 🡒]
Iowa Football Fans Are Watching A Forfeit Problem Grow
Saydel High Schools decision to forfeit its Week 6 varsity football game against Des Moines Christian is another reminder that the strain on Iowa high school football is starting to show up on the schedule, not just in the injury report. With too many players sidelined to safely take the field, Saydel had to back out, handing Des Moines Christian a move to 6-0 while also forcing a change to Saydels Homecoming plans.
The forfeit is part of a broader pattern around the state, where several other Iowa schools have already been forced to give up games this season and some programs never even put a varsity team on the field this fall. For fans following Iowa football at any level, it is a troubling sign that the numbers issue is no longer an occasional inconvenience but something reshaping Friday nights. [Read more 🡒]