And their schedule is a lot easier than Iowa’s.
Yes. Iowa will need to sweep the West or at minimum go 5-1 with the loss being to the right team for tiebreakers. 7-2 could win the division this year in a tiebreak scenario, I'm 99% sure that 8-1 will win it outright.
Highlights of the schedule for each contender.
Iowa - road games are a beotch. At Michigan, Northwestern, Wisconsin, Nebraska. Oh and a game at a ranked Iowa State out of conference for good measure. Iowa's path to the vision is go 2-2 in the conference road games (with 1 of the losses to Michigan), win all the home games and win a tiebreaker. Iowa's crossovers are at Michigan, Penn State at home and Rutgers at home. Penn State appears weaker than previously thought. 2-1 in the crossovers is not unreasonable.
Wisconsin - crossovers with Michigan, MSU, @OSU. Hello. Also play Nebraska and Minnesota on the road. Get Iowa, Northwestern and Purdue at home. There is a path to the division here, but they will have some losses. The new QB will have to be good.
Nebraska - crossovers are OSU and Indiana at home, @Maryland. Also get Northwestern, Iowa and Wisconsin at home. Home field hasn't been what it once was for Nebraska, but if they go 4-1 or better at home in conference they are in business.
Purdue - easiest crossovers of the contenders. @PSU, home with Indiana and Maryland. Can they go 2-2 in the road games? (Iowa, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Penn State). If so, they are in the race. The home game against Nebraska feels like a huge game in the division race.
Minnesota - darkhorse. Crossovers are Rutgers, Penn State, Maryland. Road games at Purdue, Northwestern, Iowa. Seems like 6-6 or 7-5 to me, but I could see a path for them to get to 7-2.
Northwestern - crossovers are OSU and MSU at home, and at Indiana. Also play at Wisconsin and at Nebraska. If the transfer QB is good, Wildcats will have as good a shot as anyone. At some point, they will stop winning every close conference game but Fitz has his guys believing. And they play defense.
Illinois - does not matter. One of the worst power conference teams out there.