Yeah but they went 5-3 against Texas Tech, Kansas, and Kansas State, the three best teams in the Big 12. Iowa went 1-4 against Michigan State, Michigan, and Purdue and the losses were positively dreadful. Argue conference strength an head to head all you want, but one team did well against the best teams in their conference and the other did not. One team played well and won their conference tournament beating the best teams in their conference, the other blew out a horrible team then got their ass handed to them against a top seed in their conference. Sorry man, ISU has the better resume and had the better season. If Iowa would not have blown chunks down the stretch they'd be in a better position and this wouldn't be a debate.
You just point out how much better the B1G is here. Michigan, MSU and Purdue are far better combined than Kansas, K-State and Tech. It really isn't close.
ISU lost to 8 NCAA teams, Iowa lost to 8 NCAA teams in the regular season. If anything Iowa "losses" were against better teams than ISU were:
Iowa lost to #2, #2, #2, #3, #5, #5, #6, #10, and a #11 seed. Iowa lost to 2 non NCAA teams
ISU lost to a #3, #4, #4, #9, #9, #10. ISU lost to 4 non NCAA teams
ISU lost to 7 teams that weren't "as good" as them (IE seeded lower than them). Iowa lost to 3 teams that weren't "as good" as them.
ISU had the better conference tournament, but the regular seasons were pretty even. Both lost 10 games, Iowa won 1 more game, and beat them head to head. The tie breaker is going to go to who has the better NCAA tournament. I mean if either teams gets bounced in the first game, it will be hard to argue their season was better if the other team wins. I'd rather win 1 game in the NCAA than win a conference tournament, as they are the most overrated thing about college basketball. I actually wish they would do away with them, and award auto bids to actual conference champions.