First, there was stridently anti-BCS/pro-playoff AP columnist Jim Litke:
Oklahoma State, meanwhile, finished 4-0 against teams in the final Top 25 and likely would have claimed Alabama’s spot in the title were it not for an emotional overtime loss at lowly Iowa State.
The ISU football team was perfectly mediocre with a 6-6 regular season, but lowly? That word choice seems influenced by historical narrative. (Not that the narrative is wrong, just overly harsh in this particular instance.)
This season’s women’s basketball team, on the other hand…
No. 10 Texas A&M easily handles lowly Iowa State
The context of the second appearance of the word in four days is much harder to argue.
Maybe some day Iowa State games will show up as another team’s “best wins” rather than “worst losses” (or in the case of 1972 Nebraska, “worst ties”). But the narrative carries a lot of inertia.