Iowa, Auburn and other sleepers that could shake up the CFP race

AMES, Iowa — The 67th edition of the Cy-Hawk Series featured all the oddities of a rivalry game.

There were two lightning delays totaling 2 hours, 55 minutes. During the second stoppage, Iowa’s team managers, escorted by state troopers, collected about 60 sandwiches from three local outlets for the hungry players.

“I didn’t get one of them,” coach Kirk Ferentz said, “but I did see somebody with like a 12-incher or 14-incher.”

The game included five field goals, two long Iowa State touchdowns, only one touchdown by the winning team, and a rather inglorious ending: Iowa delay of game, Iowa false start, Iowa punt that Iowa State fumbled after Datrone Young ran into teammate/returner Deshaunte Jones.

Iowa’s Devonte Young fell on the ball, clinching an 18-17 win, the Hawkeyes’ fifth straight in the series.

“I just did my job,” Devonte Young said.

The 19th-ranked Hawkeyes completed their job under adverse conditions. The game’s unique circumstances could make it an outlier to some, but not Ferentz, who will use the Cy-Hawk as a reference point.

“This is a conference game,” Ferentz said. “You’re on the road, you’re playing in a tough environment against a really tough football team. There was going to be nothing easy about this week. … It sure can’t hurt for us to weather it, push through it and fight through it.”

Iowa is among the under-the-radar teams with the right ingredients to push for a conference title and shake up the College Football Playoff race. In selecting one such team for each Power 5 conference, I eliminated those not picked to win the conference (official poll or media) and those not appearing in the top 15 of the AP preseason poll.

Let’s break down the under-the-radar conference title contenders.