You are just whistling past the graveyard my friend. tOSU, Michigan, Pedo State, USC are elite FB programs. While Iowa might win some of these games, those schools will usually be favored and usually win.
Here are some actual facts:
1. Small population, split with two states. What it means-Iowa doesn't create very many four- and five-star recruits. If every state breeds the same rate of 4/5*s, Pennsylvania will generate more than three times as Iowa, Ohio, about three times Iowa, Michigan about 3 times, Minnesota-fortunately they don't prioritize football, nor does Illinois because we are much smaller, Indiana is at least twice as big as Iowa and Wisconsin is almost twice as big. You see how that ratio inherently makes it harder to recruit at Iowa.
All four Pac 10 teams come from more heavily populated states than Iowa. How many millions of people live within a hundred mile arc from San Diego to north of LA? A lot more millions than live in Iowa.
2. Small school. Iowa doesn't graduate very large classes, tOSU, Michigan, Michigan State (not a better program than Iowa) Pedo St., Bucky, Oregon, and UCLA all have larger to multiples larger classes than Iowa. That means their alum pools grow faster to exponentially faster than Iowa. Those are your attendance and small to large donor pools and, in time your major individual donors. You understand how Iowa falls farther behind in living donating alumni of around 8 BIG schools every year i.
3. Not a BB. Iowa has nowhere near BB status. Not close. tOSU, Pedo St., Michigan, USC are permanent BBs. Washington is kind of a low-end BB. Oregon, another really dirty school can now have Nike buy players through the NIL. They have a budget like an NFL team once the NIL money is added back into the overall operating budget. These schools usually bury Iowa in recruiting.
4. No urban access. The biggest money for NIL and the schools is found in large cities. The deep corporate sponsors, corporate and millionaire donor classes typically live in large cities. Iowa is close to DSM, which is probably the smallest "city" in the Big Ten, and Iowa has to share with the goat ropers for DSM money. I'm assuming that that Portland is still an incorporated city and Seattle has not become its own democratic communist republic, like Ukraine. even Purdue and Indiana have access to Indianapolis, Cincy, Chicago, etc... Black Rock and Buffet had kept Omaha holding its own population. Where does Iowa go to find those very deep pocket donors?
These are the major problems that face every Iowa coach. Coaching attitude or visible enthusiasm does not put money in the bank, millions and millions of more dollars in the bank.
Picking isolated games or seasons ignores the real-world big picture. The things that make Ferentz great has been the doing more with less. We knock those BBs off now and again, some entire seasons turn our way but never all in a season. Take a view of the last 60 years of Iowa football and count the wins against Michigan and tOSU.
