Why pick on Iowa? The B1G west is a mess and if a team in the division happens to miss Ohio State in the cross-division schedule you are gold with the CCG. The only division in power 5 considered weaker for the last decade is the SEC East.
As bad as Butch Jones was, he crapped all over the Big Ten West Division:
2015 TaxSlayer Bowl: Tennessee 45 Iowa 28
2016 Outback Bowl: Tennessee 45 Northwestern 6
2016 Music City Bowl: Tennessee 38 Nebraska 24
Considered weaker by who?
As bad as Butch Jones was, he crapped all over the Big Ten West Division:
2015 TaxSlayer Bowl: Tennessee 45 Iowa 28
2016 Outback Bowl: Tennessee 45 Northwestern 6
2016 Music City Bowl: Tennessee 38 Nebraska 24
Considered weaker by who?
I'm discussing the worst power 5 division for the last decade and you are fixated on your team. That might be the disconnect.
Why not just Google worst power 5 division in college football? (Spoiler alert: They'll be talking about Kentucky, Vandy, Missouri, SC, Tennessee, Florida)
Why pick on Iowa? The B1G west is a mess and if a team in the division happens to miss Ohio State in the cross-division schedule you are gold with the CCG. The only division in power 5 considered weaker for the last decade is the SEC East.
It's all cyclical. The East ruled the conference and the West was horrid. It will cycle through again where the East is better than the West.
It will never be "cyclical" as a division. The east has always been top heavy. It will continue to be. Missouri, Vandy, Kentucky, SC, doesn't have the football DNA to challenge the top tier for more than 5 minutes.
Neither do Arkansas, Miss St, or Ole Miss. Texas A&M, despite their reputation and high expectations, actually doesn't have a particularly storied football history either.
I suppose A&M has a "football DNA" but their expectations are largely a function of the fact they are a huge school in Texas and have a ton of money, not because they have experienced a lot of historical success as a program.
A&M expectations is also a product of elite recruiting. 4 teams recruiting at an elite level in the West with a few others that can reload and scare a few along the way.
In a perfect world, at least one that can read a map, the barn should be in the east and then you can send that sorry Missouri bunch to the West. Amazing to think that by doing the geographically right thing, we've also managed to do the right cyclical thing. Silly SEC.
Isn't the reason that hasn't happened is because it would mean the end of The Third Saturday in October? The Iron Bowl would become (presumably) a permanent cross-division game, which Tennessee/Alabama is now.
I'm sure it is. All things change in time. This week alone concerning conference grad transfers, the few telling the many what to do may be going the way of the Dodo bird.
Maybe sitting around waiting for the old codgers on the BOTs to finally give up the ghost doesn't sound like a great gameplan anymore.