in the NFL, since there are relatively few division games (or, strike that, since the divisions are so small) the wins don't matter quite as much as how they were earned. Player health comes into play more, even outside of skill positions.
Secondly, NFL teams do a lot of moving and shaking in the off seaosn that college teams don't. You can spend years being a middling pro team, while you assemble a championship team. College seems to me to be more evolutionary, recruiting is about prestige and reputation, and it builds more slowly. Of course its possible to lose to a middle of the pack team like Wisc, and then come back with an amazing run the following year, if all the pieces are in place, and you get lucky, but more often than not, its a predictor of a slightly better or slightly worse season to come, like say, beating a middling team like Wisconsin the following year in a second tier bowl game.
Lets say top of the middle of the pack.
I have a feeling they're a stronger team this year than Iowa or Wisc.