I'm not saying we will never lose. I'm saying that as a fan I can't ever see me getting to the point where a loss to ISU is acceptable. Every year I go into that game feeling it should be a win for Iowa. I doubt that ever changes for me.
As I'm sure is the case for most fans who are of the age that really picked up football around the start of the Fry era-through the mid-90s. (Since the resumption of the Iowa-ISU series). That's really all you knew.
Iowa beats ISU 42-10.
Every year.
But, things have changed somewhat, maybe they'll continue to change, maybe they'll revert, but despite what everyone has been conditioned to, the ISU teams of the late 80s and mid-90s are not comparable to the mid-2000s or current ISU team. It then stands to reason, at some point, if ISU keeps improving, Iowa stagnates (or continues to stagnate/regresses), that's not really going to be a shocking or unexpected loss.