Knows vs Unknowns

I can't blame a kid not going with the known product in Madison over unknown products in Ames or Iowa City.

Madison is a much better town, anyway.

The Hoop Heads say the '12 Iowa HS class is top notch, so Fred needs to get his crew looking like they know what they are doing, even if they don't win a lot.

PT

Cool

You can now watch every Sweet 16 game since 2000 at The NCAA Vault.

Damn that 2000 ISU team was good.

Peter

Perspective

When it comes to tough football coaching jobs, Iowa State is in elite company.

The long-term future of ISU athletics centers on getting respectable, fast.

Peter

Money

ISU spends more on football than I thought- and doesn't win enough per dollar.

But the big surprise? SUI is a horrible underachiever per dollar.

While I think its a little unfair to look at the past 5 ISU years, the three horrible years bookended with 7-6 bowl trips, I was surprised by the comparisons.

ISU plays more games against teams with smaller budgets than I assumed- 23/52. Improving that winning percentage will go a long way in improving the budget, too.

SUI should hardly ever, ever lose, and yet they do. .625 against teams with smaller budgets, 0-3 against bigger (I assume all Ohio State games). Shameful.

Peter

Curious

While all of these flaws have merit, not listing a completely rebuilt OL as a flaw is interesting.

Aside from Stanzi's ankle sprain, the Goblas got every break they needed last year when they needed it. Things like that average out.

Their fan base will manage to come away from a 9-3 or 8-4 season horribly disappointed.

Peter

Sporting News: #82

TSN hates our QB and the D in general.

Peter

Bored

Huskers were bored with winning all the time, anyway.

Pure hubris.

Peter

Job 1

Not that folks aren't always trying to improve, but I'd say ISU has a 5 year window to turn itself into at a decent football program before The Texas League blows up for good.

Since the next conference-shopping-period will be based on one's value in football, the math is simple. Get good fast.

Peter

The Texas League

There isn't any other option for a new name.

Peter

Academics

Random data from US News College Rankings:

Only 9 of the Top 25 schools play BCS football. The top ranked BCS school is Stanford, followed by Duke and Northwestern.

The highest ranked school that has won a national title recently is Notre Dane, #20. USC is #26, Michigan #27.

Iowa State is #88. KU is #100, NU #101, MU #104. Nebraska was invited to the Big Ten because of its "Academic Fit".

Boston University has a larger student body than Iowa State. Rice is Top 25, but is smaller than Drake.

Peter

MWC

Hlas makes a good case.

Peter

Distance

I think Sean Keeler's plan is about as happy an outcome as ISU can hope for.

He also reminds us how friggin' far away Boulder is.

As long as The New Thing can put together its own TV network, and have revenue sharing, its all good.

Peter

Cy-Hawk

I expect calls to end the end the ISU-SUI football series to begin in 3, 2, 1.....


Peter

Big 101112?

Away goes Nebraska. The other dominoes should fall soon.

Peter

Opponent Vaccuum

The ISU sport most nervous about a B12 implosion is wrestling.

Suppose ISU finds itself as one of the "forgetten 4": KU, KSU, Baylor and ISU. ISU would now be a wrestling 'independent', which would make it much harder to field a team and operate versus the present situation.

Losing Big 12 opponents would put wrestling on a very, very short glide path to irrelevance.

Peter

Dropping

What Hlas said, but with less of a downer.

Sure a drop to the Mountain-CUSA-B12 Leftover-Something League would hurt our collective egos, but it would be a more appropriate fit from a budgetary standpoint. ISU has more in common with Colorado State and Memphis athletically than OU, Texa$ and Nebraska.

Would Cyclone fan rather be a perpetual second-division program amongst the Big Boys, or first-division among teams that don't have deep pockets?

An his point about "prestige"- its "prestige" only among sports fans. The non-sports public assumes that if you are playing Big Time Football that you are a Jock School that gives lip service to academics. The number of public universities that have high quality academics and winning sports is insanely small.

Peter

Seats- or Not

This will become moot once the B12 implodes and we find ourselves hosting Louisiana Tech instead of Texas Tech, but I would argue we expand the south bowl using Stand Up Tickets.

I attended a Bundesliga match back in the last century, and the cheapest tickets were behind the goals and everyone stood because there literally were no seats. The section was tiered with 6 to 8 inch steps, each step was a couple feet wide, and the front of each step had a waist-high railing to lean on. You could cram a bunch of people in there at very low cost, and, being cheap, it attracted a rowdy involved crowd.

It isn't that big of a leap from what the Jack already has in the SRO corners, but this would add some structure and order to what is current a rather free-for-all. It can become an football Cyclone Alley for adults.

Best of all, since you aren't dumping a lot of cash into it, if it doesn't work, no biggie.

Adding bodies to Game Day, even at discount, is a good thing.

Peter

Opportunity

Too bad ISU doesn't have the DL weapons to exploit this.

SUI may just have to win every game 3-0. Not the best plan, but given their talent on D, it is plausible.

Peter

Bubble Team

Fan House tries to formulate a 64 team Super League.

By using attendance as a predictor of TV ratings (a rational theory), ISU is in the conversation for averaging 40K-ish each year.

Peter

Dollars

Want to keep Nebraska and Mizzou in the family? Replace the worst TV deal in college sports with something that gives cash to someone other than Texas.

The right deal might even attract more schools in. Big 16, anyone?

Peter