Kirk Ferentz on chance to ‘screw things up’ by beating Michigan: 'Might be kind of funny'

Kirk Ferentz and the Iowa Hawkeyes enjoyed another successful season, and now they’re facing Michigan in the Big Ten title game.

Coming off a huge victory over Ohio State, many are expecting the Wolverines to take care of Iowa and advance to the College Football Playoff. Heck, even FOX’s broadcasting team last weekend called the showdown between Michigan and the Buckeyes “the first College Football Playoff game,” overlooking whatever happens in Indianapolis.

Ahead of the showdown, Ferentz knows Iowa isn’t headed to the College Football Playoff regardless. However, it would be glorious to ruin Michigan’s plans, and be crowned Big Ten champions in the process.

“We’re 0-2 over there. Both teams have gone on to the College Football Playoff,” Ferentz said, regarding Lucas Oil Stadium hosting the Big Ten title game. “That’s kind of a commonality too. When you get to this game, you’re going to be playing somebody who if they’re victorious, that’s where they’re going.

“If we win, that would really screw things up, I’m guessing. Might be kind of funny actually.”

Anything can happen on that football field. Iowa may be huge underdogs, but Kirk Ferentz will have the Hawkeyes roaring and ready to rock when the time comes against the Wolverines.

Kirk Ferentz sounds off on Michigan sign-stealing scandal, how Big Ten can fix it

Continuing, the conference championship game will represent Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh‘s return to the sidelines after serving a three-game suspension from the Big Ten amid the program’s ongoing sign-stealing investigation, a story that has dominated and surrounded the Wolverines since reports surfaced in October.

On Sunday, Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz spoke about Michigan’s sign-stealing scandal ahead of the conference title game, providing an interesting big-picture perspective on the situation as a whole. 

“If you want a bigger picture view, this is something that probably could be corrected really easily,” Ferentz said. “Whoever’s got to get together, just have a vote. And a lot of stuff, different technology has been talked about, it seems like, for maybe not quite a decade, but close to. And it’d be a simple way to fix everything. I know baseball had some issues, I think they’ve got that fixed. We could have fixed this probably a decade ago.”

“So it’s like a lot of things have happened in the NCAA and college football. We’re a really slow-moving train when it comes to being progressive, trying to improve things, just improve the quality of the game. So it kind of fits in that category. … That’s really, hardly a concern of mine. But one of these days, maybe we’ll take the steps needed to be taken just to take this off of the board as a topic for anybody,“ Ferentz explained.

On3’s Kaiden Smith contributed to this story.