There are just a lot of haters in the media about Iowa. Some examples of teams ranked in the AP poll:
Utah: 7-3. doesn't have a win against a current top 25 team.
Tulane 9-1. has beaten their last 3 opponents (Rice, East Carolina, Tulsa) by a combined 7 points
James Madison 10-0. Does have a "signature" win against Virginia, but is ineligible for bowl games unless there aren't enough .500 pct win teams.
Notre Dame 7-3. I swear they are the anti-Iowa and media loves them. I guess they beat Duke and maybe that means something.
Tennessee 7-3. They did beat 6-4 Kentucky.
North Carolina 8-2. Their last 3 games against FBS opponents. 1-2 with losses to Virginia and Georgia Tech and a 2 point win against mighty Duke.
Kansas St. 7-3. The Wildcats boast about 2 wins against bowl eligible teams: Troy and UCF.
Oklahoma St. 7-3. Does have a win against Oklahoma. But has been beaten by UCF and South Alabama by a combined score of 79-10. Their other loss, a road loss in Ames if you want a comp game.
Liberty 10-0. So Liberty is probably going undefeated this year. But, best win is against New Mexico St. I guess in the logic of would you rather give the undefeated G5 team a BCS spot over Tulane, here is your team. But at least if that's your logic, you'd rank them over Tulane. Best win is a home win against New Mexico St. in September.
I think the playoff committee is going to be moving Iowa up higher as long as they win games. Really, any 10-2 team should be in high consideration for an NY6 game. The Hawkeyes lack a great win, but what they are starting to amass is a lot of wins against (bad) bowl bound teams. If you take away the terrible Minnesota call, this team would really be in the drivers seat for an NY6 game.