I sense an invasion.

Admittedly, I’ve been out of action for a while but upon returning to pen my recent thoughts on the Hawkeyes, I found that a lot of people have capitalized on the recent trend of “Hawk Hunting.”

From now on, Hawkeye haters will be referred by this columnist, and his peers if they’d like, as Hawk Hunters.

While Hunters believe they can just jump on the “Trendy Train” of hating Hawkeye football, which rolled off the tracks somewhere around the time AP writers took notice of Iowa’s undefeated record, I’m not going to watch them take off without throwing some crap back.

Immature approach? Maybe.

The slight against Nile Kinnick inspired my retaliation.

Leave the “Cornbelt Comet” alone. He was one of the best athletes in NCAA history. In terms of character, he was the best.

Kinnick was a hero.

Take your hands off his legacy!

Now, give me a moment to cool down, lest I completely lose my temper.

Is Iowa’s schedule really that bad? Ha! I should say not!

Let’s examine the numbers one more time:

Iowa has the 7th toughest schedule in the nation. Not 70th, 7TH.

Does that number mean anything to anyone? Keep all that “who have the Hawks played” talk out of here.

Six of Iowa’s opponents have winning records and Iowa’s remaining opponents’ record is a solid 17-10.

Remember, Iowa does not play the Big Ten’s two worst teams (Purdue and Illinois).

Iowa did have to go on the road against Penn State, Wisconsin and Michigan State. They also won against a Michigan team that still believed they were good and soundly defeated a good Arizona Wildcats squad, currently ranked 18th in the BCS standings.

Any time Hawk Hunters delve into strength of schedule—because they assume the Big Ten must be down if the media says so—they find themselves going deeper and deeper trying to prove their point when, in fact, they end up contradicting themselves.

I feel like I’m just rehashing statistics, here. That’s not what I came to do.

If Iowa wins out, they would have defeated Penn State and Ohio State in two of the toughest environments in all of college football.

If that team from the Mountain West, the WAC’s finest or the best of the Big Easy—and I’m not referring to New Orleans—find it a crime that Iowa sneaks past them in the BCS standings, so be it.

Like it or not, those are the teams on the outside looking in if Iowa stays undefeated. Remember, the computers still control the system and guess whose side they’re on.

That’s right, Iowa’s.

They can whine about it all they want.

Hawkeye fans won’t hear them. We’ll be too busy celebrating after the BCS bowl selections.