By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The Iowa football team will have to win the rest of its games, seven in total, to have any chance of making the 12-team college playoff.

That is the sobering reality in the wake of this past Saturday’s 20-15 loss to Indiana at Kinnick Stadium.

A game that was there for the taking against a nationally ranked opponent at home instead turned into a loss that now has Iowa on life support in relation to the playoff.

If you’re able to appreciate success beyond just making the playoff, then Iowa’s season is far from over with seven games remaining.

But if  it’s playoff or bust, then this season has entered the near crisis stage with Iowa 3-2 overall heading into the first of two bye weeks this season.

It’s reasonable to believe that Iowa would have to finish no worse than 10-2 to have any chance of making the playoff, and even that might not be good enough.

In order to run the table, Iowa would have to win at Wisconsin, win at home against Penn State, Minnesota and Oregon, win at USC, win at home against Michigan State, and win at Nebraska.

If Kirk Ferentz were able to pull that off, then he should win Big Ten Coach of the Year for a fifth time.

That’s a massive if, though, and probably asking too much.

But what if Iowa were to finish 9-3 or 8-4, but not make the playoff?

Would that be considered a failure just because of not making the playoff?

If so, then the journey is becoming less and less relevant while the destination takes center stage.

Expanding the playoff field from four teams to 12 teams certainly has its advantages, especially from a financial standpoint.

But the downside to expanding the playoff field is that it takes away from the journey, or in other words, from the regular season.

If there is anything wrong with the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments, it’s that they’re too powerful and too influential.

A team could have a record-breaking regular season filled with monumental wins, but it it were to lose in the first or second round of the NCAA Tournament, some would consider the season a failure because the destination means way more to them than the journey.

Major college football now seems to be moving in that direction with a 12-team playoff.

There certainly isn’t anything wrong with having expectations, especially for a head coach who is in his 27th season as is the case with Kirk Ferentz at Iowa.

Playing in bowl games has become routine and is expected under Ferentz.

So, some would argue at this stage the only thing left for Kirk Ferentz to accomplish is making the playoff, and that anything less would be considered a disappointment, if not a failure.

Okay. Fine.

But that sure is setting yourself up for failure.

And what about injuries?

Few obstacles can change the course of a season quicker than injuries at key positions such as quarterback.

Of course, the goal for every Power 4 team is to make the playoff, even more so now with 12 teams.

But it shouldn’t be the only goal, because for a lot of teams, the season would essentially be over in September if the only thing that mattered was making the playoff.

And that just doesn’t seem right.

If Iowa were to finish 9-3 this regular season, or even 8-4, that would, or should, reflect positively on Kirk Ferentz and his coaching staff.

It wouldn’t be enough to make the playoff. But that can’t be all that matters.

The journey still should count for something.