Greetings, BBN!
Each week this college football season, we’ll be doing a new series called The Top State. With FBS teams in 41 of the 50 states, the entire country will be full of teams representing their state on the gridiron and showcasing how good their state is at football. There’ll be an award given out here for The Top State each week, which will be given to the state with some combination of the most wins that week, the most impactful wins that week, and/or the most interesting wins that week.
We had a small handful of Week 0 games last Saturday, as far West as Honolulu, Hawaii, and as far East as Bowling Green, Kentucky. So let’s get into it!
Honorable Mention: Hawaii
The Aloha State’s one-and-only Rainbow Warriors like playing in Week 0, usually hosting somebody on their tropical islands before the calendar has flipped to September. Even better, sometimes it results in a big season-opening win like it did last Saturday. Hawaii defeated Stanford 23-20 thanks to a walk-off field goal as the clock hit triple zeroes. Trailing most of the game but never buckling, Hawaii beat an ACC team before most of the FBS had played anybody. That’s a big start to their season, but not quite as big as the one a team from Iowa got…
The Top State: Iowa
Iowa is represented by two teams: Iowa and Iowa State, and the latter played in Week 0 and hit paydirt for it. The Cyclones flew out of the country to Dublin, Ireland, to face fellow conference contender Kansas State on a truly neutral field—when the field is literally thousands of miles from both teams, it is undoubtedly neutral!
The Cyclones have their work cut out for them as they try to return to the Big 12 championship game, but they are a step ahead of the rest of the league by getting this 1-0 advantage while knocking K-State down to 0-1 before Week 1. With the state of Iowa getting a smidge closer to the CFP than any other school in Week 0, they are The Top State.
