Couple things people need to keep in perspective,
The 9 games instead of 8 is what is making the schedule tougher and nothing else! The idea that we lost some of our cupcakes is ridiculous. Below is our current winning percentage against all Big 12 teams (current and former), guess which is which:
62%
40%
40%
37%
28%
26%
20%
20%
14%
12%
0%
I'm sure most of you got the bottom one and maybe the top one right, but I wonder how many of you had Colorado as the 6th on the list, below three South teams? The other three south teams makes up the bottom three with Nebraska right above them. Removing Nebraska and Colorado from our conference win percentage actually helped our conference winning percentage.
Nebraska and Colorado combine for about 2 wins every 5 years for ISU; where Baylor, OkState, and Texas Tech combine for 6 wins over the same time frame if played yearly. Under the old configuration we would only 6 wins over 10 years which is still better than playing Nebraska and Colorado annually.
As for the idea that certain schools "seem to be on the up tick, even though we have had success against them in the past we won't be so lucky in the future", I don't buy it. Look at KU and their recent history. Texas just two years ago played for a NT and last year they won one conference game.
A few years ago I said that ten years from now Florida, USC, Texas, Ohio State, Oklahoma, and Alabama may very well be mediocre. I pointed out that though all those schools have had semi-constant success it is impossible to keep that high of success for long and eventually they will fade back down to lower bowl games again with a losing season here and there, making way for other schools to leap frog. Look at what has happened at all but two of those schools. None of them are down for the count but all seem far less daunting. There are always constant swings of power and even if OSU seems impossible, Texas probably appears more winnable. After all, before last season we had 0% success against them.
For those that are interested here are the answers to the above stats.
62% BU, 40% KU, 40% MU, 37% OSU, 28% TTU, 26% CU, 20% KSU, 20% NU, 14% UT, 12% A&M, 0% OU