Sunday, the #19 Iowa Hawkeyes are poised to play host to the #16 Illinois Fighting Illini. The game marks not just the midpoint of the 2025-2026 season for the Hawkeyes, but also the start of an absolutely pivotal point in Iowa’s season.
After closing out the non-conference slate at 10-1 with the lone loss coming on the road at now-#3 Iowa State, the Hawkeyes seemed to have all the momentum in the world. They kicked off Big Ten play at 2-1 with only an early loss on the road at #12 Michigan State and
came into this week undefeated at home and riding a four-game winning streak.
Things were looking up and our Reacts poll of the week would have been largely meaningless if that’s where things ended.
Instead, Iowa went on the road Tuesday and picked up their first loss outside of quad one, falling 70-67 at Minnesota. The Hawkeyes have yet to win a true road game and remain winless in quad one. Thus, we asked how the season is stacking up relative to fan expectations.
The results?
Still overall very positive. While the comment section of the ask seemed to get consensus somewhere between a C+ and B+ letter grade for McCollum’s bunch thus far, just of half the poll respondents this week indicated the team has exceeded expectations. Just under half feel like Iowa is meeting them while a few stragglers apparently expected the success at NWMS and Drake to be a 1-to-1 carryover into the Big Ten.
Overall, it’s hard to feel too down on this season to this point and the fanbase is in agreement.
But it is, of course, only half of the season and now the Hawkeye face perhaps one of the most difficult stretches they’ll see all season. After playing just two quad one games in the first half of the year (both road losses), Iowa now kicks off a stretch of three straight Q1 matchups.
That begins on Sunday with a home showdown against #16 Illinois. As noted, Iowa is winless in Q1, but also undefeated inside Carver-Hawkeye this year. One of those streaks will come to an end this week.
Following the ranked matchup on Sunday, Iowa is rewarded with a trip to #5 Purdue next Wednesday, before closing out the stretch with another road matchup at Indiana (30th in the NET). That matchup with the Hoosiers is of particular note because of Iowa’s prior interest in hiring IU coach Darian DeVries.
This difficult stretch of matchups, including a pair of road games against Q1 opponents, makes that loss at Minnesota all the more frustrating.
Iowa will certainly have a slew of other opportunities for road wins and Q1 resume builders, but dropping one where they were favored means they need to pick up one in this next eight-day stretch where they likely won’t be favored in order to avoid a four-game skid.
If they are able to get their feet back under them, the stretch run is no less daunting. Following this pivotal point in the schedule, the Hawkeyes will have seven home games and six road games remaining. Of those six road games, three are to either coast, and of their seven home games, three are against teams ranked inside the top-ten nationally.
Time to buckle up, Hawkeye fans – the second half of the season is going to be a wild ride!
