Btw, I chuckle at "probably left a couple division titles on the table".
Here's our bad beats since our last Big Ten title:
2005- Refs and pants pooping vs Michigan, just pants pooping vs Northwestern.........win both those winnable games and we share the B10 with PSU and OSU. And then it was just the refs vs Florida..........
2008- 4 losses by 12 pts, I believe was the number? But that gets chalked up to a team still learning to win
2009- Stanzi injury = Iowa can't have nice things = BAU
2014- Never mind the Maryland game that we had an early 14-0 lead in (or the embarrassment that was the Minnesota game....that never happened btw
), let's focus on the final two Big Ten games where we continued to get in our own way against Wisconsin up until the 4th qtr and then the defense decided that "hey we've held on for 55 minutes. There's no sense in sticking around for the final 5!"....which was a common theme for Iowa for many years, especially throughout the late 2000s and most of the 2010s and especially in important games, right up until the Outback Bowl against Mississippi State....(and that streak only lasted until the Citrus Bowl against Kentucky this past season)..........but oh well amirite?
Then to top it off we blow a 24-7 lead against Nebraska, which oddly enough changed the fate of both teams from there on..............
But if we somehow just win those two winnable games, instead of being consistently inconsistent to downright mediocre, then Iowa wins the division title again, and they get to go get blown out by Ohio State...................but hey at least we would've been there!
2015- Stupid refs swallowing their stupid whistles down their stupid throats because they had to follow that stupid unwritten rule that you have to let the stupid players play and they let stupid Michigan State get away with two stupid egregious penalties, including on the final stupid touchdown to keep us out of the playoffs........not that I'm still bitter about that.
2016- BAU play down to Northwestern for the unnecessary L, and BAU can't get out of our own way to score a touchdown L against Wisconsin
2017- Stupid Penn State game, stupid try hard Purdue and of course stupid offensive no-shows against MSU and Northwestern kept us from going 11-1
2018- More idiocy and finding new ways to lose to Wisconsin, BAU offense no-shows against Northwestern, refs and pants-pooping helps us lose to Penn State and more try-hardy try-hardiness from Jeff Brohm and Purdue making sure they at least get their signature win over Iowa.
2019- BAU Brian Ferentz offensive no-shows in losses to Michigan and PSU. Win those two and the Wisconsin game doesn't matter. We win the West.
2020- Stupid Jeff Brohm and his stupid try hard bullsh**
*kicks table/hurts foot* getting stupid Purdue to try hard against Iowa................even though he technically wasn't at this game.
And more BAU choking against Northwestern.
2021- BAU offensive sh** show, but hey!.....at least we won the West!
And that's not including all the other dumb play-down-to-our-competition "narrow" losses we've taken in the Ferentz era to teams like Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, Purdue, Northwestern, Iowa State and Wisconsin............