With an Orange Bowl victory the Hawkeyes earned their highest final rankings in the Kirk Ferentz era finishing 7th in both the AP Poll and the coaches' poll. Iowa finished 8th 3 times in a row following the 2002, 2003, and 2004 season.

The six in front of the Hawks are: Alabama, Texas, Florida, Boise State, Ohio State, and TCU. Call me biased, but I would have put Iowa sixth in front of TCU, but that's hardly worth complaining about.