We shouldn't be surprised by this at all. If Barkley was at Utah State doing the same thing with the same numbers he wouldn't have even been on the ballot. It is amazing that the college FB media endlessly kisses up to the Big 10, when they are probably the worst P5 conference in terms of actual athletics.
Clearly there are people voting on this award that had no clue what the actual award was for. Also, a couple of those games that got away from ISU would have helped keep Lanning's name in the news. Kind of sad that individual awards are alway determined by who you play for.