Ya, just to be clear, I haven't been the one touting the ISU/Iowa game is not important and the only thing ISU cares about is conference championships.Care about both.
One finer point, ISU has had to play EVERY team in the conference EVERY year. . Iowa does not play Ohio State/Michigan EVERY year. For Iowa to win a conference championship, the stars need to align, good team, no injuries and a FAVORABLE schedule.
I cannot find an Iowa outright conference championship when they played Ohio State and Michigan in the same year. A good example is the 2002 team that shared the title with but did not play Ohio State, and then got lit up in the orange bowl by USC.
In 2004 we shared a conference title after playing both OSU and Michigan, and went on to beat the defending National Champs in the Capital One Bowl, so...