This is my yearly reminder that in the new-Kirk era (since 2015), Iowa has been awesome as a favorite.
5th best win% in the nation, and the best performance vs. the spread of those teams. And yeah, I know that bettor spreads and favorites are not a true indication of who is SUPPOSED to win or of team quality, it is where lines can be set for houses to make money. With that caveat in mind, it is the most readily available (if flawed) metric of who is supposed to win a game.
Over the same time period, Iowa is middle of the road as an underdog (13-26, 20th best P5, 4th in B1G classic).
And since the 2017 Iowa-OSU miracle, Iowa has mostly been spanked as a double-digit dog:
If there is any light, I would say it comes from 2 performances last year as double-digit underdogs. We beat Wisconsin on the road as a double-digit underdog (turns out Wisconsin was a paper tiger). We also put up a damn good fight in the B1G championship game; Iowa played one-handed without an offense, but they were not outclassed overall.
I would lean more towards this being like the 2022 OSU or 2023 PSU beat-downs. If they do shock the world, it is going to be on the backs of our offense wildly outplaying expectations, and OSU making some critical mistakes (we're not winning this 9-6). We will then nuke the Fire Tim Lester Thread for good.