There was a comment by houksyndrome in the "Curious: Your greatest game attended, or just watched" thread about the 2003 Michigan team being the best team Iowa's beaten during Ferentz's tenure. Which got me thinking: which team is the best team Iowa's beaten since he's been here? There were eight teams that seemed like potential options.
So... which one was the best? I'm partial to either the 2003 Michigan team or the 2008 Penn State team, personally. The 2003 Michigan team finished with three losses (an early road loss to Oregon and a Rose Bowl loss to USC sandwiched their dramatic loss to Iowa), but they still finished with four wins over ranked teams, including lopsided wins over ranked Notre Dame (38-0), Purdue (31-3), and Ohio State (35-21) teams. On the other hand, the 2008 Penn State team had three wins over ranked teams and only some late-game magic from Messrs. Tyler Sash, Ricky Stanzi, and Daniel Murray kept them from playing in the national title game that year. Or do you prefer some other squad? Make with the voting.