The "Superbowl" topic is about as fresh as a Foghat concert, but here are my thoughts:
1.) Coach Mac knew the Iowa program better than any other we played each year.
2.) Coach Mac wanted to win that game as much as any other we played each year. (Maybe it would be fair to call it his Superbowl.)
3.) Iowa was generally not as good as Hawkeye fans believed.
4.) Suggesting a win over Iowa should imply an easy run through the Big 12 is laughable.
I never implied that a win over Iowa should imply an easy run through the Big 12. The last time Iowa beat ISU, Iowa was 4-4 in the BigTen - nothing to be proud of. But what I'm saying is that in 2002, ISU beat - and there really isn't any denying this - a pretty good Iowa team. Yet ISU went on to be embarrassed by conference opponents and faltered down the stretch.
It may have been Mac's superbowl, and who could blame him? You don't get the chance to coach against your old school in a rivalry game often. But if you watch the games, the ISU players clearly play much harder than they do for any other game. Or why else can you explain terrible losses (or close wins) to teams like Baylor, Illinois State, Northern Iowa, etc...?