Kirk Ferentz is a pretty straight-forward guy, one who isn’t afraid to speak his mind. So when the Iowa head coach was asked about the final rankings in coaches poll, he didn’t refrain from stating his opinion.

Ferentz isn’t a huge fan of the coaches poll in the first place, primarily because he doesn’t believe there are a lot of coaches sitting around watching other teams play. Basically, he claims that it’s educated guessing and that a lot of those involved aren’t actually paying attention.

“The only guys that would be any good at evaluating the top 25 that are coaches, are coaches that watch a lot of TV,” Ferentz said during his postseason press conference. “And I don’t know many of them.

“For me to talk about anybody on the West Coast or the Big XII in the season, I would be fabricating, or making stuff up.”

Iowa was ranked No. 25 in the final coaches poll following a 9-4 season and a 27-22 win over Mississippi State in the Outback Bowl. But since the Bulldogs were ranked much higher in the coaches poll during the bowl game, Ferentz believes the Hawkeyes should’ve climbed higher.

“I don’t know if anyone actually realizes, we played Mississippi State in the bowl game. We beat them,” Ferentz said. “I’m a coach. So they way my mind works, is [Mississippi State was] 18th, we got the better record than them, we beat them, why aren’t we 18th? That’s how my simple mind would work.”

That’s not a terrible thought process, especially considering some of the head-scratching rankings that come out throughout the season.

Ferentz believes that the obscure rankings are also a byproduct of the College Football Playoff. He believes that, outside of the top six teams, nobody has much interest in the rest of the poll.

“We’re all so fixated on the top four, and five and six that got screwed,” Ferentz said. “Everything after that is kind of insignificant. That’s one of my fears in college football; everything becoming kind of meaningless outside the top four.”

Ferentz isn’t wrong. A majority of the effort and energy in college football has been placed on the College Football Playoff and the top six teams. It’s hurt the significance of bowl games and the importance of top 25 polls.

Like it or not, that’s not going to change anytime soon.