If your team is the Hawkeyes, every year the expectation is different.
Iowa lost 4 outstanding juniors to the NFL draft last February. So this season looked hopeless to me in the spring, and I projected a 5-7 season for Iowa with a good year being 6-6.
In August the NCAA declared Oliver Martin, a WR transfer from Michigan who Harbaugh indicated was expected to start there, eligible to play at Iowa. So Iowa, usually is short in the receiving corps, appeared to have gained big time. Martin was a 4* recruit for Michigan, from Iowa City, which makes little sense. Immediately before the season started, when Oliver became eligible, I was thinking, 7-5 would be good, as I thought the Hawkeyes would lose to Iowa State. Oliver Martin is now stuck in 3rd string, and hasn't caught a pass, as far as I recall, since the Rutgers game which was Game 4, I think.
Well, 9-3 this week is now the expectation, but 8-4 wouldn't be so bad.
If none of the early out players went to the NFL, I would have been disappointed if Iowa had not been in the Big Ten Championship game.