Kirk Herbstreit talks during ESPN "College GameDay" at Wyatt Lawn on the campus of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025 before Vanderbilt hosts Missouri.

November is often regarded as the craziest month of the college football season, with upsets looming and teams jockeying for position in the hunt for a conference championship and potential spot in the College Football Playoff. That all starts this weekend, with an incredible slate of conference games that will carry significant weight when it comes to determining who plays in late December.

One of those games features the No. 9 Oregon Ducks and the No. 20 Iowa Hawkeyes, who will square off in a wet and windy Iowa City on Saturday afternoon. This is being regarded as one of the biggest games at Kinnick Stadium in quite some time, with the Hawkeyes hoping to boost their resume and get into the CFP picture, while Oregon looks to stay in the mix and pick up a ranked win this season.

With Oregon favored by 6 1/2 points on the road, it's been a popular pick for many to side with Iowa and the points, but ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit recently took it one step further. While appearing on the Pat McAfee Show on Thursday, Herbstreit predicted that the Hawkeyes would pull off the upset.

"Oregon loses Saturday," Herbstreit whispered to McAfee on the show. "We all love Dan Lanning, we all love the Ducks and their potential, but there's just something about certain teams at Iowa when you go into November."

It's a fascinating matchup, as Iowa holds one of the nation's best defenses, but an offense that has struggled to say the least. While they can run the ball well, the Hawkeyes have the 124th-best passing offense in the nation and aren't much of a threat to move the ball through the air. Oregon's defense has been great this year — No. 1 in the nation against the pass — but its ability to stop the run has wavered at times.

On the other side of the ball, we've seen Oregon's offense be great at times this year, averaging 38 points per game, which is sixth-best in the nation. However, a lot of that scoring has come against poor teams, and against the likes of Penn State, Indiana, Northwestern, and Wisconsin, the Ducks have put up just 21 offensive points per game in regulation.

Herbstreit officially predicted a 16-15 victory for Iowa, with the Hawkeyes kicking a game-winning field goal as time expired. We will see if he ends up being right, but he certainly won't be alone in his prediction for the upset.

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This article originally appeared on College Sports Wire: Kirk Herbstreit predicts upset in Oregon Ducks vs. Iowa Hawkeyes game

Reporting by Zachary Neel, College Sports Wire / College Sports Wire

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