Iowa Football: The Athletic unveils projected win total, title odds

As Iowa’s 2023 college football season approaches, the final batch of predictions are surfacing. Ahead of Big Ten media days, the league’s media released its predicted order of finish.

The Iowa Hawkeyes were chosen to finish second in the West behind the Wisconsin Badgers. It was as close as it could possibly get, though. The Badgers finished with 233 points against the Hawkeyes’ 232 points.

Of the 37 potential first-place votes in the West, Wisconsin collected 20 and Iowa grabbed 16. Meanwhile, Minnesota was the other West program that received a first-place vote from the media.

Meanwhile, Michigan garnered 27 first-place votes in the East to outflank Ohio State in second and Penn State in third. All 37 writers picked Michigan, Ohio State or Penn State to win the conference.

Elsewhere, The Athletic’s Austin Mock revealed his projected Big Ten win totals and conference championship odds. His college football projection model creates a projection rating for each team based on play-by-play data that adjusts for every opponent. From those ratings, Mock can then simulate every game of the season and project how many games a team will win, how often they win their conference or division, as well as how often they make the College Football Playoff and win the national title.

What do Mock and The Athletic’s numbers say about the Iowa Hawkeyes?