Where Iowa Landed on New College Football Rankings

Excitement is brewing for another college football season which sees new conference alignments taking shape, a titan in Alabama beginning the fall with more questions than usual, and another member of the Manning family under center at quarterback.

But what about our beloved Iowa Hawkeyes? They are armed with another new transfer quarterback in Mark Gronowski, but in the eyes of many black and gold fans, he's going to look like every other Iowa quarterback of the past few years until proven differently. As is the case every year, The Athletic dropped their annual college football rankings ahead of the season, to the delight of sports fans country-wide.

Chris Vannini of The Athletic took on the lofty feat of analyzing 136 different programs, ranking them, and writing a brief blurb about each. At the top are the usual suspects, with Penn State coming in at #1, Clemson at #2, and Texas rounding out the top three. Ohio State, Georgia, and Notre Dame round out the top six, respectively.

Other Big Ten programs, such as Illinois, Michigan, and Indiana were slotted in the top 20 as Iowa was edged out of the top 25, which was, honestly, to be expected. That said, Iowa did manage to land in the top 30.

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Indeed, Iowa landed at #29 in Vannini's ranking. Vannini had them ranked #38 overall in 2024. The Hawkeyes find themselves in decent company, including Baylor (#28), Auburn (#30), Georgia Tech (#31), and their rivals in Iowa State at #27.

Here's Vannini's analysis of the Iowa Hawkeyes ahead of the 2025 season:

South Dakota State transfer QB Mark Gronowski was a big get, but can the Hawkeyes replace the production of running back Kaleb Johnson? - Chris Vannini, per The Athletic

Vannini mentioned the most significant loss the Hawkeyes face this season in Kaleb Johnson. The stud running back was a third round draft pick by the Pittsburgh Steelers in April, and it's going to be tough to replace his production, to say the least. I have few concerns about a Phil Parker-coached defense regardless of the talent dropoff.

Gronowski was a gunslinger at South Dakota State, something Iowa could use. However, will he be individually good enough to offset the absence of Johnson? That, along with countless other details in the upcoming season, remains to be seen.

Check out Chris Vannini's rankings of 136 college football programs on The Athletic's website.