ESPN offers 2024 college football preseason bowl projections for Iowa Hawkeyes

You know that college football season is close when major outlets are providing their preseason bowl projections before the first game of the year has even kicked off.

Just four days away from Week 0 signifying the start of college football, the Iowa Hawkeyes are still a week and a half away from their season opener against Illinois State inside Kinnick Stadium on August 31st.

With the slate that the Hawkeyes have, it would have to be a failure of catastrophic levels to not be bowling in 2024 which is why they are present among many bowl projections.

The latest bowl projection from ESPN sends them to a familiar location but against different teams.

Both Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach are sending the Hawkeyes to the Reliaquest Bowl (formerly known as the Outback Bowl) on Tuesday, December 31st. The game is at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay, Florida.

Due to the tie-ins for this bowl game, the opponent for Iowa is highly likely to be an SEC program and that is reflected in the projections. Bonagura has the Hawkeyes drawing the Auburn Tigers while Schlabach has Iowa taking on the Missouri Tigers.

One interesting tidbit of info is that Schlabach actually had Iowa under consideration for one of his at-large bids to the College Football Playoff but ultimately left the Hawkeyes on the outside looking in.

Iowa is tied with the Michigan Wolverines and the Wisconsin Badgers for the most appearances in this bowl throughout its name changes. Iowa has played in this bowl six times registering a 3-3 record.

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