Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa football's biggest rivalries plus College Football Playoff expansion heats up

Episode Date: June 9, 2021

Who are Iowa's biggest rivalries plus the college football playoff expansion talks are heating up. How would this impact the Iowa football team? We break it all down here before diving into the Iowa basketball press conferences from Filip Rebraca and Payton Sandfort.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.StatHeroStatHero, the FIRST Ever Daily Fantasy Sportsbook that gives the PLAYER the ADVANTAGE. Go to StatHero.com/LockedOn for 300% back on your first play. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back Hawkeye Nation to a Wednesday morning episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes Podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Sports Network. As always, I am your host Andrew Wade, and after you get done listening to today's episode of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast, you gotta check out the Lockdown Big Ten podcast. There is simply no better place to get all the news on the Big Ten Conference than with Big Ten Ben Stevens and the Lockdown Big Ten podcast.

Follow the Lockdown Big Ten podcast on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast app. And on today's show, we have quite a few topics we want to cover. I've been wanting to cover this for a little while since I took a little bit of a break. This came out during that time. If any of you follow Boomer Sooner on Twitter, it's quite an interesting follow. Basically, just clickbait, right? But it definitely brings up some interesting discussions.

One of those was the most hated rivalries for all Power 5 schools. And I want to talk about Iowa's most hated rivalry here on today's show. We're also going to talk about the college football playoff expansion. There was a report coming out that we could be expanding the college ball playoffs to 12 teams. I think that is an atrocious idea that is entirely fueled by greedy and money hungry. the powers that be. We're going to talk about that on segment two. And finally, on segment three, we did hear from the newest additions, the Iowa Hawkeye men's basketball program.

Phillip Rabracha and Peyton Sanford spoke to the media. We learned a few things. We're going to talk about how that all plays in this upcoming season. So that's all coming up on the show today. If you haven't done this already, please make sure to follow and subscribe wherever you downloaded this podcast at and obviously follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. That being said, let's hop into the show though, kicking it off with our most hated rivalries. So I'm going to go through the list that Boomer

Sooner put together and then I'm going to go through what I think is actually the case. He said that Iowa's most hated rivalry is Nebraska. Iowa State's most hated rivalry is Iowa. Nebraska's most hated rivalry is Iowa. Wisconsin's most hated rivalry is Iowa. I also wanted to look at Northwestern's and Minnesota's. Northwestern's most hated rivalry is Illinois. And Minnesota's most hated rival is Wisconsin. Now, why that's interesting is no matter who you ask, right,

it's always going to depend on the person, the fan, what their perspective is. I think there's a very good case to say that Nebraska is Iowa's most hated rival. I certainly hate talking to Nebraska fans the most because whenever you bring up anything, all they talk about is the 90s. But I wanted to dig a little bit deeper into this and give my opinion on it. When I think of the most hated rival, I think of the team that I would hate to lose to the most, not necessarily the team that I want to beat the most. And I think those two things are very different. So currently, Iowa has four rivalry games each year. You get Nebraska, you get Iowa State, you get Wisconsin, and you get Minnesota. Now, Minnesota's rivalry game hasn't been much of a rivalry game

in the past 20 years, if we're being completely honest. Yet, Minnesota's gotten some Ws there occasionally. But for the most part, Iowa has done a phenomenal job, especially in recent history, of taking down the Minnesota Gophers. I would argue that Minnesota fans hate Iowa fans significantly more than we hate Minnesota fans. I mean, after all, they have literally a chant saying, who hates Iowa Minnesota fans hate Iowa fans significantly more than we hate Minnesota fans. I mean, after all, they have literally a chant saying, who hates Iowa? We hate Iowa.

Talk about a team hating you. I think Minnesota, though, does make sense from that standpoint of if they had to pick a team, they would hate to lose to the most. Actually, it might even be Iowa there, but Minnesota, I think, is Wisconsin's. Northwestern's I just thought was interesting, that's Illinois. I really don't feel like that's much of a rivalry, but I'm not actually in Illinois. But when you look at it, the team that I would love to beat the most is undoubtedly Wisconsin. Out of all these four rivalry games that Iowa has, Wisconsin is the team to beat.

They're the team that I get the most sense of accomplishment from beating because they have been the cream of the crop in the Big Ten the last 10 years. Now the team that I don't want to lose to the most is Iowa State. Yeah, it's not Nebraska. It's actually Iowa State. Now from a conference perspective, you could definitely argue Nebraska there, but Iowa State gives you bragging rights over the entire state of Iowa the entire year. And every single year, it is just a phenomenal game, even though Iowa State has not traditionally had such a good program. The fact that you're pitting the two main schools, I think there's just nothing more than the Iowa-Iowa State game,

especially the fact that it's been a rivalry for so long. The Nebraska game, I think, could be a very heated, much more heated rivalry long term. I think it could become that most hated rival at some point, but it just hasn't been going on long enough. And until the last couple of years, no one really cared about the results, right? It just isn't a big deal. You're not getting college game day for Iowa and Nebraska, although you should, just because Black Friday, not a lot of games going on, and that's probably the best game towards the end of the season. But outside of, you know, I know we have some rivalry weeks anyways, but that would be an interesting game to have, you know, game day at. But to me, I think

it goes in this order. You go Iowa State, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Minnesota. That's how I would rank the four most hated rivalries. I just can't hate Minnesota. I just, there's nothing to really hate about them. They're just not a good program typically. Wisconsin, I don't even really hate. I just respect them. Iowa State is a team that I would hate to lose to the most though. Nebraska is the second most. But most so, I just don't like their fans.

The Nebraska fans, again, are just so stuck in the 90s. And there's no logic there. But then again, you look at Iowa State fans, especially some of those on Twitter, and you get that as well. You don't get a lot of intelligent takes from certain subset of Iowa State fans across the board. What's going to be interesting this year

is to see how those games play out because Iowa State is going to be a very good football team this year. How does Iowa State potentially handle winning that game now that they're actually good? Nebraska has been very close the last three years, but has not been able to get over the hump. Everything coming out of spring ball is that Nebraska is finally ready to make the turn, turn the corner under Scott Frost. Scott Frost has been complaining about not having his guys in the program. Well, you're in year four, Scotty.

You've got to have your guys in the program now, except for a lot of them keep leaving. So are you able to turn the corner, and can you make this Iowa-Nebraska game a real game that people outside of these two states care about? I don't know. It'll be interesting to see. Let me know your thoughts, though.

What is your most hated rival among Iowa's rivalries? Very interested to hear that. We'll obviously give some of our best takes right here on the pod. Coming up on segment two, though, we're going to get into the meat of our show, talking about college football playoff expansion, because that is the big topic of the day today. Before we do that, though, I want to tell you about rockauto.com, because I had a phenomenal experience at rockauto.com.

I needed two engineer filters. I went to rockauto.com after going to the brick and mortar store. Within five minutes, I used their remarkably unique and easy to navigate catalog. And I found both the parts I needed. And I saved $50 in doing it. It only took me five minutes. Five minutes, I saved $50. That's $10 a minute I saved by going to rockauto.com.

And I think that kind of proves my point. The prices here are really low at rockauto.com. And they're perfect for the do-it-yourselfers, the professionals, whatever it might be. Whatever project you have, rockauto.com has you covered. So when you want to go get some parts for your car or your truck, go to rockauto.com. Go to rockauto.com right now and see all the parts available for your car or truck. And write Lockdown on there. How did you hear about Usbox?

So they know we sent you. Amazing selection, reliably low prices, all the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com. It is 2021. Get rid of your cigarettes, unplug your vape, throw out your dip, and get some Lucy nicotine gum or lozenges. This is the real deal. A subscription to Lucy comes directly to your door each month. It's so simple and you don't have to leave your house because Lucy has delivery down.

Lucy lozenges and gums are also FSA and HSA eligible so you can spend pre-tax dollars on them. Locked On College listeners have a fantastic offer as well, which we'll get to in a second. But if you have not heard about Lucy nicotine, it is a company founded by Caltech scientists and former smokers looking for a better and cleaner nicotine alternative. Finally, tobacco alternatives that do not suck for you. If you are looking to get rid of your cigarettes, your vape, or your dip, check out Lucy.co.

Locked On College Network listeners, go to Lucy.co, C-O, and use promo code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE to get 20% off all products on your first order including gum or lozenges that's lucy.co and use promo code locked on college at checkout also i have to give this disclaimer warning this product contains nicotine derived from tobacco nicotine is an addictive chemical lucy.co and be sure to use that promo code locked on college and let's get back into our show today

talking about college football playoff expansion as we talked about there was an article that came out late yesterday i want to say almost 11 30 at night and it essentially said that it looked like we were going towards a 12 team college football expansion. Now, that might seem fun to some of you. I think it is a terrible, terrible idea. So the article is from Yahoo's Pete Thamel. Basically said within two years, we could see a 12-team playoff, which would be very interesting.

So first of all, let's talk about the 14 playoff. What's going right and what's going wrong? I think it definitely has garnered some fantastic interest in that playoff. It gives teams something to play for for a national championship. In my opinion, it takes away a lot of the concern about did we get the right teams. There were several times in the early 2000s where there were probably three or four teams that all had pretty good claims to be playing in the national title game and were unable to do so. Okay. So that part to me is very interesting. You know, the fact that we got the 14 playoff, I think that eliminates that.

Now, the issue that's been happening is the sec has had multiple times. They've gotten two teams in the playoffs. You also always have a Power 5 conference that does not have a winner, does not have the Power 5 conference champion in the playoffs. You have five Power 5 conferences. You're not getting all five of those Power 5 conference teams there. You're also not getting the group of five team. And as much as I want to say they're probably not worth being in that bowl game, they have technically earned it. They did go, you know, these teams have gone undefeated. So when you look at the Pac-12, Big 12, Big 10, ACC, and SEC, you're guaranteed to at least eliminate one of those teams.

And in some cases, you're eliminating two of those teams when you take two SEC teams. So I think it makes sense that they want to look at expanding the college football playoff. Now, from my perspective, I think it should be six teams or possibly eight. Going to 12 is a bit ridiculous, and I'll explain why here in a second. But six teams allows you to take the five Power Five Conference champions and the Group of Five champion, whoever the top-seeded or top-ranked Group of Five team is. That gives everyone somewhat of a fair shake in that whole system. Now, you're going to hear SEC fans complain because they're the only place that really gets two teams in the conference or the college football playoffs. They're going to be upset about that.

I'm sorry. If you don't win your conference, you shouldn't be in the college football playoffs. Now, the argument for eight is, well, I guess the one argument against 6 is what happens with Notre Dame or BYU get a freaking conference I don't care you do it for basketball you're going to do it for football that's what I think about that

for call it for 8 games or for 8 teams it would be the same thing so you'd have 5 power 5 conference champions you have the group of 5 winner or top seeded team then you have 2 at large bids basically allowing a Notre Dame to get in and a second SEC team to get in. It is what it is. That's what happens. Every year, there's always a team or two that feels like they got left out. I think it's important to realize no matter how much you expand the college ball

playoffs, you're always going to have a team or two that felt like they should be in. There's always going to be controversy unless every team plays each other that they feel like they should be in the college ball playoffs. So you look at expanding it to 12. Now you're opening it up a lot, right? You're opening up a lot of potential controversies as well. You're going to have a nine and three team and an eight and four team from different conferences. And one of those teams is going to get in. You're still going to have a 9-3 team and an 8-4 team from different conferences, and one of those teams is going to get in. You're still going to have controversy. So what is the limit here? I think ultimately when you look at a 12-team playoff, the idea is that it is going to earn and generate a ton of money. It also gives teams more teams an opportunity to

make the college world playoffs. But does it really matter? We've seen basically the same four teams be powerhouses year in and year out and always make the playoffs. You get Oklahoma, Alabama, Clemson, and Ohio State. Excuse me, I had my notes wrong. I had two Oklahomas in there, but Oklahoma, Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State. They occasionally get LSU. You sometimes get Notre Dame, Georgia occasionally. There haven't been that many different teams in that four. If you were to expand it out, I don't think the 12th best team is going to beat any of those teams. I don't think the 11th best team is going to beat any of those teams or the 10th best

team. So what is the true purpose? The purpose, in my opinion, is to find and truly crown a national champion. If that is your goal, you expand it to six teams. You make Notre Dame BYU join a goal, you expand it to six teams. You make Notre Dame BYU join a conference, you expand it to six teams. That allows every conference champion to win that. If you expand it to eight, I can kind of understand that you get a little bit of leeway then with a Georgia or an Alabama or an LSU or a Florida team that might have an opportunity to win and is

talented but loses to an Alabama who is a powerhouse. They might be the second best team in all of college football, but they're not getting that opportunity in that six-team playoff system. So maybe you expand it to eight. You also don't force Notre Dame or BYU to move out. But if you go on to 9, 10, 11, 12, you're getting some teams in there that have no business playing Alabama, in my personal opinion.

Now, from an Iowa perspective perspective this would be really interesting it would definitely generate some some more interest Iowa in this case would have been a college ball playoff team six or seven times in the last 20 years so from an Iowa perspective do we like that I think it could be interesting it sounds like the talks would be to have kind of a play-in game essentially which would be potentially played at Kinnick so if you're one of those bottom four seeds, maybe you're getting a winnable game in Kinnick, which would be phenomenal. But then you have to go up against an Alabama or a Clemson or an Oklahoma or Ohio State. And I'll be honest, I'm not scared necessarily of those teams. I think Iowa could at least hold their own. And the way they play football, they could at least keep their game kind of close.

But I don't willy-nilly want to go for those teams. Most years, Iowa's roster could not compete with any of those teams. Except for Ohio State. They cannot compete with Clemson or Alabama, my personal opinion. They just don't. They don't have the talent to do that. Look what happened to Stanford. They had a Christian McCaffrey and he just destroyed Iowa. Alabama has 10 Christian

McCaffreys or 10 Christian McCaffrey lights. I'm not necessarily wanting to go grab a game against an Alabama or a Clemson, but it would generate some more interest from an Iowa Hawkeye perspective. I personally think though that this is not the way to go. And if you want to create more opportunity, I think you need to start with fixing the parity problem. When you look at Alabama, they are constantly getting five-star and four-star recruits. When you look at their roster, they have more five-stars on their third string than Iowa has had in the last 40 years. Now, part of that's the recruiting.

Part of it's the geographic location of where some of these recruits are located at. Part of it is Iowa's recruiting style and what they're looking for in players versus what Alabama's looking for in players. But if we want to have more opportunities for more teams, I think you need to allow the group of five. I think you need to allow each of the conference champions.

And I think you need to focus on a parity problem. And I don't know what the solution is to that parity problem, but there is a parity problem in college football. It is basically a two-to-three team show every single year, and the rest of the teams are just playing for some bowl games. And that's cool, and that's fun, and I love college football, and I love watching Iowa football, but it seems like they're missing the mark with this.

Giving teams more opportunity is not necessarily fixing the parity problem. You're just trying to generate more money and you're going to ultimately create even more controversy because now, what about the 15th-ranked team or the 14th-ranked team or the 16th-ranked team that has just as good of a resume, essentially, as the 12th-ranked team? They're going to be pissed off they didn't make it too.

So to me, it's going to just cause even more controversy. It'll be interesting to see what they ultimately decide. I think we better start getting prepared for this, though. It doesn't seem like this is going away. And as we've all come to know, the NCAA loves their money. So as we get more information on that, we'll be breaking that down and what it means for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Again, if this was in effect, Iowa would have made a college football playoff

six or seven times at this point. Personally, I would rather make it by winning the Big Ten Conference, so that is my personal opinion. But nevertheless, here we are today. Coming up on segment three, we're going to quickly break down some basketball talk we heard from Phillip Abracha and Peyton Sanford. We're going to talk about that on segment three. Before we do, though, I want to tell you about Bilt Bar,

the best-tasting protein bar on the market today. Bilt Bar has so many phenomenal flavors and is so delicious. I have one literally every single day for breakfast. My favorite flavor is one of the limited time offerings that if you see, you need to go grab. I have it in front of me right now. It is a white chocolate birthday cake with sprinkles. And in this white chocolate with birthday cake with sprinkles bar, it only has 140 calories, two and a half grams of fat, 17 grams of protein, and 19 grams of carbs. It is my go-to snack because it has everything I need to keep me healthy and going throughout a day, especially after a long workout. Built Bars are not only great tasting, they are great for you. And right now you can get a special deal on Built Bars today by going to builtbar.com and

using the promo code LOCKED15. That's L-O-C-K-E-D-1-5. And you'll get 15% off your first order. Use the promo code LOCKED15 for 15% off at BuiltBar.com. All right, y'all. We are back for our third and our final segment of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. We did hear from our two newest members outside of Riley Mulvey. We heard from Phillip Abracha and Peyton Sanford.

Both of them spoke to the media yesterday, I guess, at this point. A couple things we learned from both these guys. First of all, Peyton Sanford, obviously a new recruit. Phillip Abracha, a grad transfer. Peyton Sanford, though, when asked what he kind of wants to bring to this team, he mentioned shooting the three well and being a good defender. He feels like he has an opportunity to get minutes. I think it's going to be really interesting to see where they slot him in at

and how much they need him. So when you lose a C.J. Frederick, a Luka Garza, a Joe Wieskamp, you're losing a lot of three-point shooting ability there. Even Jack Nunji, if you want to point him out as well. You're losing four guys who shoot three-pointers at a very solid clip. Now, we've seen some potential from Patrick McCaffrey. We've seen the potential from Keegan. Sounds like Chris has a good shot.

Jordan Bohannon is back. We have not seen very good three-point shooting out of our point guards. And then Phillip Abracha is also known as a good three-point shooter. So there's some potential there. But really, when you look at it, we've only seen two guys really do it at a consistently high level. And that is Jordan Bohannon. And that is Philip Abracha.

So if we don't get that shooting from Patrick McCaffrey or the Murray Twins, Peyton Sanford has an opportunity to get some playing time, five to 10 minutes a game. I think it is realistic to expect five to 10 minutes for Peyton Sanford, depending on the flow of the game. And if he can be the type of defender he expects himself to be, and he's gotten some good size on him now up to about 215 pounds, you know, getting tall and like he can shoot the three that will get him some minutes we saw it with Iowa last year Iowa's first team unit was not able to get it done defensively several times Fran McCaffrey took it upon himself to basically do a full sweeping sub of all of his second string team and they were able to play significantly better defense so Peyton Sanford's best way to

get on the court is to continue to shoot threes well and be a phenomenal on-ball and off-ball defender. If Joe Wieskamp returns, I think the chances of Peyton Sanford getting minutes is very limited. And I could almost see Iowa even looking at redshirting him depending on where they want to see him play at on this team. But again, the flexibility there to have another guy who can shoot the three, can defend several positions, and be a good defender is huge for the Iowa Hawkeyes. And obviously you've got to account for the fact there could be injuries. This is a team that has entered this offseason incredibly banged up. So very excited to see what Peyton Sanford brings in. I think people are really sleeping on him as a prospect. Again, you look at the fact that we lost a lot of players, we lost a lot of three-point shooting. Peyton Sanford is going to be a guy who

will be a big-time player for Iowa in a couple years if he continues to grow his game the way he has already. Now, Phillip Abracha is interesting. So I actually spoke with Phillip Abracha. We had him on the show, and if you didn't get a chance to listen to that, I highly suggest you do. It was a fantastic conversation. One of the things I took away from my conversation with Phillip was that he didn't want to leave North Dakota. He just kind of had to. He was done with his degree. He wanted to get his MBA.

And unfortunately, North Dakota did not offer the opportunity for him to get his MBA. And because he's an international student, he had to be in person. And North Dakota did not offer that opportunity. So he had to go looking elsewhere if he wanted to play basketball and if he wanted to stay at a school and stay within the country. So he went looking. And for me, that is one of the rare instances where I think it is truly amazing to see how the transfer portal can work.

Phillip Abracha has played on a subpar North Dakota team and done really well. He loved his team. He loved his coaches. He loved playing for that school. And yet because of other circumstances, educationally based, he needed to make a decision that was best for him educationally wise. And he chose to go to Iowa.

So when the press conference came up and it was asked how long he anticipates staying at Iowa. And he said he expects to be here for two years, barring obviously a major jump in his draft stock, that didn't surprise me at all. Phillip Rabracha is not here for just a year. He's not looking to get in and get out. He wants to get his degree, set himself up long-term outside of basketball. Now that being said, Phillip Abracha in this offense is going to be a very fun thing to watch. Phillip Abracha played in a pretty slow-paced offense in North Dakota. He said he's looking forward to playing in a fast-paced offense like Iowa. And in that kind of offense, an offense

that features those big men who can shoot the three, look at Luka Garza. Look at Jack Nunji. Phillip Abracha could really, really thrive in this offense. He had phenomenal stats in North Dakota. I expect the offense to roll through him. I think what's going to happen is, obviously, you want to get Jordan Bohannon probably 10 shots, 11 shots a game because of what he brings from an outside shooting perspective. If he's healthy, you can expect him to knock that down at a 45% clip, in my opinion. You also want to get the offense rolling, right?

You want Patrick McCaffrey, Keegan Murray, Chris Murray, Joe Toussaint, Aaron Ulis. You want them out in space. You want them running on the court and tiring out offenses. Now, Philippa Bracha, you want to really focus the offense around him. It's an inside-out game where if he can tear people up inside and also shoot the three, that makes defenders have a much more difficult job of defending him. If he can shoot the three and he can drive to the basket,

big centers, Travian Williams-type people, have to go out there and guard him at the perimeter, and that gives Phillip Obracha an opportunity to go down. Now, if they decide to sag off him, that gives him an opportunity to shoot the ball from deep. And that just helps Iowa's offense really work and flow very well. When you look at last year, CJ Frederick is out and I know I'm kind of going on a different, but CJ Frederick is out for a couple of games and teams really collapsed on Luka. Luka was able to go out and shoot the three, and that forced people

to guard him at the perimeter and give opportunities for other guys to go down in the paint and get the ball. So Phillip Abracha having that versatility of being able to shoot from the perimeter and get his points down low will be huge for Iowa, and I expect the offense to really run through Phillip Abracha with that inside-out game and all the shooters that they're hoping to surround Iowa by. Now again, not exactly well-known shooters, but guys who have the potential to shoot are amongst this lineup, and I'm excited for it. If you can't tell, I'm excited for Iowa basketball.

I think it's going to be definitely a different scene watching this Iowa basketball team this year, but definitely something I'm really excited about. That does do it for our show today, though. If you like the show, remember, give us that five-star review. Follow us wherever you downloaded this episode at. Subscribe, all that good stuff. And follow us on Facebook, remember, give us that five-star review. Follow us wherever you downloaded this episode at. Subscribe, you know, all that good stuff. And follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

If you did not get enough Locked On content, though, I highly recommend you check out the Locked On Today podcast. Get all the sports news you need in under 20 minutes with the Locked On Today podcast. Host Peter Bukowski updates you on the latest news in every major sport with the help of our local experts. Follow the Locked On Today podcast on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast app. Again, thank you all for tuning in.

We'll be back on Friday and we are looking to get a few guests on over the next couple of weeks. So stay tuned for that as well. Thank you again for tuning in, Hawkeye Nation. I appreciate the love, the support, and the listenership. Have a fantastic Wednesday and let's go Hawks.