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Updated Still Early Bowl Projections

Bonagura is doubling down and is even more emphatic this week that Boise State earns the last automatic spot over either BYU or ISU. Schlabach still sticking with Big 12, but projects BYU.

Another writer, Heather Dinich (who just happens to be an Indiana graduate) does not have ISU in her top 12...sighting our SOS at 80. She only gives the Big 12 one bid.

Bonagura: No. 11 Iowa State at No. 6 Ohio State
Schlabach: No. 11 Iowa State at No. 6 Penn State



As always, don't shoot the messenger. But, a Boise State loss somewhere wouldn't hurt. Our schedule is what it is, and it's not going to change (other than a bump if we played a strong BYU in the championship game).

Still a long way to go...and losses above us will happen. Wouldn't hurt for Notre Dame to get another L too...their schedule is soft this year.
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FOOTBALL ***RELEASE: Freyler a finalist for the William V. Campbell Trophy***

Iowa State Media Relations

AMES, Iowa – Iowa State senior defensive back Beau Freyler was named a finalist for the prestigious William V. Campbell Trophy, announced today by the National Football Foundation.

The William V. Campbell Trophy is considered the Academic Heisman and given annually to the nation’s best scholar-athlete football player. Iowa State’s Charlie Kolar was recipient of the trophy in 2021.

Freyler’s selection also makes him a member of the 2024 NFF National Scholar-Athlete Class. Freyler was chosen from a pool of 204 semifinalists and will receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship. He will be honored at the 66th NFF Annual Awards Dinner Presented by Las Vegas on Dec. 10.

A native of Colorado Springs, Colorado, Freyler is a two-time co-captain and a 2023 CSC First-Team Academic All-American. He was a Second Team Associated Press All-Big 12 performer in 2023, while earning honorable mention honors from the league’s coaches in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

Freyler has compiled 258 career tackles and six interceptions while leading one of the nation’s best defensive units. He also has 8.0 tackles for a loss and a forced fumble in his career.

In 2023, Freyler finished with 107 tackles, becoming the first Cyclone to reach 100 tackles in a season since 2017.

Freyler was a preseason selection to the Nagurski Trophy Watch List and was an Allstate Wuerffel Trophy and AFCA Good Works Team nominee.

Freyler, a two-time Academic All-Big 12 honoree, will graduate in the summer of 2025 with a degree in kinesiology. He has a 3.91 cumulative GPA.

Gus Malzahn not a Great Coach

Anyone else notice how badly Malzahn/UCG managed the 4th quarter? They rarely ran the clock down, in fact I am not sure I ever noticed them running time off. Then, on a critical series, instead of running the ball, he got cute and called a couple of passes, saving us valuable time. Really pretty bad game management. Not that I am complaining.

Closed captioning rant

I don't know about anyone else, but, anymore, I can't watch TV, not including sports, without closed captioning. I guess I just can't hear well enough in my old age to enjoy TV without it. That's one of the reasons I rarely do one of my favorite activities anymore -- going to the movies.

Anyway, I was watching a new series called High Potential with Kaitlin Olson. They had closed captioning, but it was about 15 minutes behind the action on the screen. When High Potential came on, the closed captioning was doing commercials from the previous program, Dancing With the Stars, then after those were over, the dancers moving on in the competition were announced. It wasn't until the commercial break in High Potential that the closed captioning started in on the opening scenes of the show I was watching. I've seen closed captioning delayed by a couple of seconds, but never by 15 minutes.

I don't use it for sports because I find it gets in the way of the action and covers up the onscreen scoreboard or the graphics, and I really have little interest in what the announcers are saying anyway. If they did happen to say something interesting that I didn't catch all of, I can always turn on closed captioning and rewind the show to the spot I missed. Sports is one of those programs where the closed captioning lags behind the action by a couple of seconds anyway, so I'm really not missing much.
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Cygarin Ratings Projected Conference Standings.....

Here is a different angle to the Cygarin Ratings projected conference standings....what if Iowa State, Kansas State, BYU, and Colorado had exactly the same power ranking. What would their projected final conference record be?

I don't think that is an unrealistic perspective, all four are virtually even in the power ratings anyway. But this shows how much impact remaining strength of schedule....mostly the impact of home vs. away...has.

So here goes the projected wins, not rounded.....

BYU: 7.62 wins
ISU: 7.44 wins
CU: 6.63 wins
KSU: 6.56 wins


BYU's toughest games left are @ Utah & @ UCF. BYU will be favored by approximately 3 points each.

ISU's toughest games left are KSU & @ Utah. ISU will be favored by approximately 3 points each.

CU's toughest games left are @ Texas Tech and @ Kansas. CU will be favored by approximately 3 points each.

KSU's toughest games left are Arizona State and @ Iowa State, KSU will be heavily favored against ASU by 8 points and underdogs to Iowa State by 3.


ISU, BYU, and CU do not play each other. Nor does CU play Kansas State. Thus, BYU and CU will control their own destinies going foward independent of the other contenders.

Conversely, ISU and KSU do play each other....so their destiny to the CCG is strongly, and perhaps totally, impacted by playing each other...if both teams get that far.
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Note that other teams are probably out of contention, but can play a huge spoiler role, as UCF and Baylor almost did last Saturday. Here are the best...but not only... chances....

- UCF has the best chance to play that spoiler role against BYU this weekend.
- Cincy has a shot this weekend too against Colorado.
- Utah has a huge opportunity yet this year to play a spoiler role, with both BYU and ISU left on their schedule.

Important games to watch this weekend.....

BYU @ UCF: The Knights nearly knocked off Iowa State on the road. Can they pull out a win against UCF at home? UCF has a "better" win against @ TCU than what BYU at home is... so it is possible.

Cincy @ CU: The Buffs will be strongly favored by 8 points against the Bearcats. Cincy has a win against @ UCF that comes close, and that makes them potentially competent enough for consideration, so it's at least plausible.

KU @ KSU: The Wildcats will be heavily favored by 10 points against the J-Hawks....Can the Kansas pull off the intrastate rivalry upset? It doesn't appear very likely.

(In my opinion.)

105

I thought this week might be a good chance to look at the future of College Football since we have no game to discuss. Most specifically, the impact of the House Settlement and the 105 man roster limit. This was in my mind with the commen that 101 of 120 fall camp participants had played this year.

First, I am not sure what year this is proposed to start. 2025 or 2026?

Second, as I understand it, the proposed roster limit is 105, but all can be on scholarship with no further expansion for walkons. What I need clarification is could a program offer say 80 full scholarships and 25 partial, say full tuition and books and fees?

I don't know why or if that is a good thing. But if we have 20 more scholarships, that means the other men's programs have to lose 20. And most of them increase as well, particularly wrestling.

How does this all work?

FOOTBALL ***RELEASE: Noel Named to Paul Hornung Award Honor Roll***

Iowa State Media Relations

AMES, Iowa – Iowa State do-it-all wide receiver Jaylin Noel has been named to the Paul Hornung Award Honor Roll for his performance in the Cyclones’ comeback win against UCF.

The Paul Hornung Award, presented by Texas Roadhouse, is presented annually to the most versatile player in major college football.

Noel played a key role at wide receiver and on special teams in Iowa State’s 38-35 victory over the Knights. The senior tallied 203 all-purpose yards in the game, including 153 receiving yards and 52 punt return yards.

Of Noel’s 153 receiving yards, 103 of them came in the fourth quarter to help Iowa State erase a 14-point second-half deficit. His 153 yards were also the second-most in a game in his career.

The Kansas City, Mo. native had receptions of 29 and 16 yards on Iowa State’s 11-play, 80-yard game-winning drive.

To vote for Noel, CLICK HERE.

No. 10 Iowa State is on bye this week. The Cyclones will be back in action Nov. 2 at 2:30 p.m. on ESPN when they host Texas Tech for homecoming.

UCF cornerback

Not sure if saw what I saw but……when CMC was protesting a no call on a PI call that happened right in front of him, and it seemed to be pretty blatant. As he was lighting up the referee, the perpetrator for UCF (#0) stood their taunting him by holding his junk in one hand and nodding his head and grinning slightly towards CMC. Is there no class left in athletics? What a hack wagon. I hope I didn’t see what I think I saw.

I think the CB was the one that had the first pick 6.
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