Iowa's best comparison to a big 12 team is TCU, look at their 2 common opponents (ISU, MInny) TCU played both on the road and won both games more convincingly than Iowa did but in similar fashion. IMO, that's still a really good team, pry rated in the 8-12 range.
What I don't get about the Hawks is, a month ago, no one gave them respect because of their schedule, even though they had beaten the toughest teams they would face all year. Fast forward a month when they beat 4 teams with losing records, the worst teams in their division/conference and people all of the sudden respect them? Were people really not convinced until they ran the gauntlet of Purdue, Minnesota and Nebraska? Seems like it should have been the other way around but ESPN has to protect their cash cow.