College Football Playoff 2015: How would an eight-team format play out?
By John Buhler
No. 4 Oklahoma Sooners vs. No. 5 Iowa Hawkeyes (Fiesta Bowl)
Fate would have it that Oklahoma Sooners head coach Bob Stoops’ first opponent in the first round of the eight-team College Football Playoff would be his alma mater in the No. 5 Iowa Hawkeyes. Stoops and Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz played for the legendary Hayden Fry in Iowa City and both served on his coaching staff before becoming head coaches of their own. The Hayden Fry coaching tree is one of college football’s best and most expansive.
Oklahoma, the winner of the Big 12, would get to face an Iowa team that lost by three points to Michigan State in the Big Ten Championship in Indianapolis on Saturday night. Both teams have two of the country’s better quarterbacks in Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield and Iowa’s C.J. Beathard.
Iowa was often criticized for their soft schedule in the Big Ten, but outside of Oklahoma State and TCU, the Big 12 wasn’t all that spectacular in 2015 either. Iowa’s best win over Northwestern doesn’t match Oklahoma’s in the Bedlam Series with in-state rival Oklahoma State, but Iowa’s lone loss to Michigan State is exponentially better than Oklahoma’s to Texas in the Red River Rivalry.
Oklahoma has more experience in playing in big games under Bob Stoops than does Iowa under Kirk Ferentz. That would matter in this hypothetical matchup. Oklahoma would win by two scores. The Sooners would meet the Clemson Tigers in Miami Gardens for the Orange Bowl after handling the Iowa Hawkeyes in the BattleFrog Fiesta Bowl.
Prediction: Oklahoma Sooners 35, Iowa Hawkeyes 17
Next: Orange Bowl