cyatheart

Unless some epic shenanigans are pulled off by both schools that allow this to happen as quickly as next season...the last part of what you wrote will by far be the worst part. Our already tough schedule just got tougher..every Big12 school has us and blowU as win at all costs...rest of the schedule be damned. ISU already plays with chips on shoulders, but will be extra salty and has the horses this year to back up the bluster.. this year, yeah....but ISU has a really good recruiting class, best we have ever had, most of them will decomitt....plus Campbell will leave after this year. In a year or two we will be like a MWC type team at best. All the Big 12 leftovers will really.

Correct.

That's right, it's just the way it is. Unfortunate, but that's life.

100% correct, the writing has been on the wall. Could not agree more. That's why ISU built up the stadium, paying our coach 5M, paying assistants 1M. I mean they built a top ten team the last two years and won the Fiesta Bowl. Not much more you can do. Again, I don't think it is anybody's fault, Texas is doing what they should do. Texas has no responsibility to any university other than themselves. There is only so much you can do. It's just reality of being a smaller market team smacking us in the face finally. But again, the issue that kills us is, so many really crappy teams that did nothing, did not try to compete, and are riding coat tails in EVERY SINGLE CONFERNECE....those teams are in and we are going to be out. I am yelling at the wind here. I get it, nobody cares, I am going through he mourning process for my Cyclones here today, but I live in Austin. And have come to really like the Longhorns over the years. And it's a huge bummer.

You guys don't want to play in Ames, why would they? Can you imagine USC rolling into Ames in late October? Hey Colorado and Arizona, instead of playing in California, need to to run out to Ames every other year on Thanksgiving. Never happening.

Yes, the size of the university would decline steadily over time. No question, imagine if OU went to the AAC, dropped 75% of their revenue, and had to let Lincoln Riley go. Of course it would have an impact on the enrollment.

So well said. Problem is the SEC has all the coat tail hangers on as well. Vanderbilt, Miss, Miss St, Kentucky, Missouri, South Carolina, Arkansas. Hell I would say Tennessee doesn't add much anymore to the SEC. SEC still has all it's dogs too. What I don't get, is if the SEC is taking OU and TX...why not take Ohio State, Clemson and Florida State while they are at it? Maybe someday they will. Either way, good luck to ya'all.

Yeah there is no question enrollment would decline. Agree with that. And we are hand wringing, because the Big 10 isn't an option. We wish it was, but it isn't. Big 10 already has Iowa for all those eyeballs (whether on TV or streaming) and does anyone think anyone in the Big 10 is saying "man, what this conf is really missing is a cold weather small market team."

Yeah that's what kills us. Minnesota, Iowa, NW, Oregon State, Wake Forest, Miss St, Miss, Vanderbilt, Purdue, Utah...etc...they are all fine. We have 65K stadium, a top 10 team, AAU, great fan base, and we are going to be playing Eastern Michigan.

Correct, but there is nowhere to go. It's nobody's fault, it's just the reality of the situation. The reason we are marketable at all is due to TX and OU (and others in the past) gravy train that after years of struggle we finally got the right people in place to compete. But there just isn't anywhere to land that allows ISU to stay at this level.

I think most Cyclone fans blame this whole mess on ourselves not going to the Big 10 in the 60s or 70s when it was possible. In the modern era, I think most of us blame the people at A and M and Nebraska. Especially Nebraska.

Cyclone fan living in Austin here. For me this is brutal, no Clones in Texas anymore. Was looking forward to watching them with my sons as they grew up. Now we will have Tulsa rolling into Ames, can't even watch it here. I don't blame Texas or OU, not their fault. (I do hate Nebraska and Aggy though.) It's really bad for ISU though (and the other orphans). We did everything we could with the stadium upgrades and increased donations and throwing money at coaches. The stadium is 65K now and probably was going to 70K, student undergrad is 30K now. Now our TV revenue probably goes from 40M to like AAC level or like 10M. (Current AAC is like 7m). So we can't pay the coach that got us to the top 10 (which is what OU and TX always said we had to do), can't pay the debt off, the enrollment will decline, the local economy gets devastated. Our best recruiting class ever will all decommit. Last time this happened it destroyed 2 classes. We finally got to the top of the heap and had our guy locked up for 5 more years, and now it is over. For us it can't be worse, this destroys Iowa State, and not just athletics, it destroys everything we struggled to do the last 25 years. Not blaming anyone here for not realizing this since maybe you don't realize the dynamics in the state, but we will never, ever be in the Big 10. It's not an option. It's AAC for us or something like that. I know you guys will do well in the SEC, will be rooting for the old Big 12 teams (except Aggy).