Yeah, higher peaks with higher valleys over more sustained mediocrity. One thing this made me think of was how UW got zero breaks in the division format once conferences split to more division formats. We immediately got years of the best Oregon and Stanford teams in their program's histories and some of the best Coug/Beav/Cal actually while the South sucked and then when we got back on our feet all-time great Oregon teams.I may need to go re-read the article to understand what I missed with Wisconsin, Virginia Tech, Oklahoma State and Iowa. I mean I know all those schools are usually good. Like 6-6 to 8-4 good. Wisconsin has more than the others but was also helped by having a shitty B1G West division for so long. At least TCU won a semi and Utah has a couple of undefeated seasons plus bullshit Pac-12 titles. Tech's title appearance with Vick was in 1999 so that shouldn't be included. They're kinda all the same to me (same with MSU) and even though we had a far worse stretch than any of them our peak years clear theirs easily.
I actually thought the Dantonio Michigan State teams were good though they probably benefitted from Ohio State sanctions and Michigan and Penn State mediocrity as well.