They aren't wrong though. The BIg Ten does look down on them. They have a mascot carrying a piece of corn in his overalls. They don't belong there.
versus the likes of wisconsin, minnesota, iowa
Exactly. I mean Iowa knows that putting their dumb bird mascot in a cowboy hat and stuffing corn into his mouth is not the thing to do.
And keeping corn and corn products out of any Iowan's mouth tastes a great deal of determination. If the University wasn't vigilant their students would all look like Iowa State fans. That HFC just makes the hair fall out of your head and adds 10+ years.