“Almost” has been a theme for Iowa in the Big Ten West race recently.

Since going undefeated in the 2015 regular season and appearing in the conference championship game, the Hawkeyes have finished second-place in the division three times in the last five years. I think this season could go either way between Iowa and Wisconsin as far as winning the West.

And, for the sake of preseason predictions, I’ll take Iowa.

There’s not much I can say about Wisconsin that’s negative. The Badgers are going to be really good this season. But I think Iowa will be better.

We already know what Iowa’s strengths are going to be this season.

The team’s defense should be among the best in the conference — if not the best. Five returning starters in the secondary will do that. Plus, Jack Campbell and Seth Benson could emerge as the best linebacker duo in the conference. The defensive line — because of all the players the team lost here from last season’s team — is really the only spot-on defense I could question. But this is a Phil Parker defense we’re talking about. Everything is going to be OK on that front.

Offensively, Tyler Goodson has his sights set on the Doak Walker Award in the backfield. The offensive line lost both starting tackles from last season, and Kyler Schott will miss the early part of the year. But again, this is Iowa we’re talking about. The offensive line will be fine. Despite losing its top two receivers from last season, this year’s corps — led by Tryone Tracy Jr. — should be explosive.

What this season is really going to come down to for Iowa is how Spencer Petras performs at quarterback. Subpar quarterback play was part of what contributed to both of Iowa’s two losses last season.

If not for blowing a 17-point first-half lead against eventual West champion Northwestern last season, Iowa would have been representing the division in Indianapolis.

Iowa has a relatively tough Big Ten schedule. Luckily for the Hawkeyes, they avoid Ohio State. Plus, the team has seemingly difficult games against Indiana, Penn State, and Minnesota at home. A road contest against Wisconsin will be tough, though.

Forgive me for being optimistic ahead of the season, but I think we’ll see Petras take a step next season, which will propel Iowa to the top of the West.

The Big Ten is finally back to a sense of normalcy with a full 12-game slate.

And right now, the Big Ten West is Wisconsin’s to lose.

Sure, the Badgers had an up-and-down year in 2020-21. A 4-3 record (with three games canceled because of COVID-19) doesn’t make a good case for Wisconsin to come back and win the west.

But in 2021-22, without major COVID-19 protocols hindering the Badgers, Wisconsin is a complete unit — headlined by sophomore quarterback Graham Mertz.

Mertz was saddled into the starting quarterback position with essentially no training in 2020-21 as former Badger Jack Coan (now at Notre Dame) suffered a foot injury shortly before the season started.

He impressed in his first-ever collegiate game, going 20-for-21 with five touchdowns in the Badgers’ 45-7 routing of Illinois. But Mertz was lackluster the final six games, finishing 2020-21 with a total of nine touchdowns and five interceptions.

But the former four-star recruit had serious hype coming into Wisconsin for a reason.

After a full spring and summer practice — something he didn’t get last season — Mertz should be primed to return to form and live up to the Badgers’ high expectations.

The No. 12 Badgers will play host at Camp Randall for seven games this season. Wisconsin’s most tantalizing game will be against No. 9 Notre Dame at Soldier Field in Chicago.

Other than the Fighting Irish, the Badgers should have a cakewalk of a season. A very realistic 11-1 Badger record will land Wisconsin in Indianapolis for the Big Ten Championship game.