It wasn't one media member that earned Iowa the "fake ID" tag. It was getting down 35-0 in one half to Stanford that did it.
People are always going to be skeptical of teams with good records in the kiddie pool division of their conference, but that Rose Bowl cemented it.
Actually OU is the team that has cemented the Big12 as the conference of jokes. They have gotten blown out regularly in the post season over the past 10 years.