Week zero is officially upon us, which means the season is essentially here. That also means it’s the last chance for any final preseason rankings. ESPN’s final SP+ rankings from Bill Connelly are here.
Back in May, the Iowa Hawkeyes checked in with the nation’s No. 27 SP+ ranking. Has that changed at all? How have the Hawkeyes’ opponents rankings altered in the months since?
Real quick, here’s a reminder on what exactly the SP+ ranking from ESPN is and how exactly it works.
SP+ is a tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency. It is a predictive measure of the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football, not a résumé ranking, and, along those same lines, these projections aren’t intended to be a guess at what the AP Top 25 will look like at the end of the year. These are simply early offseason power rankings based on the information we have been able to gather to date. – Connelly, ESPN.
SP+ rankings are created using three primary factors: returning production, recent recruiting and recent history. Keep in mind that South Dakota State will not appear in these rankings as the Jackrabbits are an FCS opponent. Without further ado, let’s take a look at where Iowa and all of the Hawkeyes’ opponents are ranked in ESPN’s final preseason SP+ rankings.