The Iowa Hawkeyes are well into spring practice, but the focus for every power conference team entering the 2026 season remains the same: conference title and a College Football Playoff appearance.
For the Iowa Hawkeyes, they have been painfully close to breaking down the College Football Playoff door and notching another feather in Kirk Ferentz’s hat, but have yet to make an appearance in the postseason field.
Entering the 2026 season, Iowa once again remains a fringe team that many believe is on the outside looking in, but could find a way into the field if things break the right way. FanDuel released its odds for each Big Ten team to make or miss the College Football Playoff.
Iowa holds the eighth-best chance to make the CFP with +800 odds to make the field, while owning -1500 odds of missing the College Football Playoff.
At the top of the conference, Indiana, the defending champs, are highly anticipated to make a return to the College Football Playoff field, along with Oregon and Ohio State, each of whom also made it last year. The trio has extremely favorable odds to make the postseason.
After that, Michigan, USC, Penn State, and Washington rank ahead of Iowa in terms of odds of teams likely to make the field. Wisconsin, Illinois, UCLA, Nebraska, and Minnesota, in order, follow the Hawkeyes. The rest of the Big Ten is rounded out by a group of longshots, including Northwestern, Maryland, Michigan State, Rutgers, and Purdue.
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