--bumped from FanPosts

As I'm sure most of you have heard by now the ISU-KSU football games in 2009 and 2010 will be played in Kansas City at Arrowhead Stadium.  At first glance it seems to be a bit of a headscratcher.  In the past these types of games have been reserved for high-profile out-of-conference matchups or traditional rivalry games.  Both K-State and Iowa State have had memorable moments in Arrowhead Stadium. 

For K-State shocking Oklahoma to win the 2003 Big 12 title clearly ranks at the top but they also played nonconference games against Cal and Iowa in an era when it was pretty unusual to see a visiting team without a couple of directions in front of their name.  Iowa State used a furious comeback (officially it is only a near comeback but we all know Seneca was in) over a top ten Florida State team to launch a season that would eventually see them climb to 9th in the AP poll, their highest ranking ever.

Both teams drew well with an estimated 40,000 Cyclone fans attending the FSU game (with a total attendance of around 55K, I think) and K-State approaching or selling out three of their four games and drawing 50,000 against Cal.  Will these teams be able to draw this well in '09 and probably more in question, '10?  While the two teams are near consensus picks to finish in the bottom pair of the Big 12 North there is reason to be optimistic for fans of both schools.  We're entering the second year of the Chizik era and there is still a very positive feeling among fans about the direction of the program.  More questions surround Ron Prince but they should have a very experienced team next year led by senior Josh Freeman.

If the game is held early in October as it is scheduled now both teams could have good records coming out of their nonconference schedule but I think the effect of that will be minimal for K-State fans and even less so for ISU fans, many of whom would have to travel a further distance.  It will be all about how fans feel about the team entering the season.

The success of the first two years will go a long way in determining if this becomes a more permanent fixture on the schedule.  Jamie Pollard was quoted in the Rag as saying “We really think we can grow this into something exciting for the long term.”  That sort of surprised me as it seems that for this to have a long-term future there needs to be more at stake than "hey, we're playing a game in KC."  ISU and KSU are both kind of odd men out when it comes to rivals within the conference.  We play for a trophy against Mizzou but it doesn't usually get the blood boiling for either side.  KSU certainly has a lot of passion for the KU game but the Jayhawks save most of their venom for Mizzou.  There was a budding rivalry between K-State and Nebraska during the 90's and first half of this decade because the games meant something which is the only way that this game will evolve into any sort of rivalry.  Will both teams have what it takes to become contenders in the North?  It will be tough but not impossible.

Finally there's the financial aspect of the whole thing which is, honestly, the only reason this is happening at all.  According the Rag the teams are guaranteed a total of $1.8 million over 2 years and 40% of the gate receipts.  I'm a little skeptical of that last number because I'm not sure where exactly the Chiefs are getting the rest of that money for the payout.  Maybe they mean 40% split between the schools?  Make no mistake about it, these games are huge money makers for the Chiefs which is why they have been so aggressive about getting everything from Pitt State-Northwest Missouri to KU-MU.  As a Chiefs fan who is ready for the Carl Peterson era to end any moment now it's a little offputting to see him up there gloating about this game and acting like he personally saved these two teams but, that's just me.

According to what I heard on the radio KU and MU each received about $1.5 million after TV bonuses and their guarantees of $1 mill/year.  KU claims they would have only make about $700,000 with the one home game and $0 for the away game so I'm guessing ISU would have similar numbers.  ISU is already financially outgunned in this conference so any little bit of revenue that helps us continue to upgrade JTS is absolutely necessary.

Overall I think it's going to end up being a net positive for the two schools but whether it continues to be a positive is yet to be determined.  I'm fairly optimistic that these two fan bases can come close to filling it both years but if the teams continue to tank I can also see it turning into a joke.

Having tailgated multiple times in Manhattan and in Ames I know that both schools absolutely know how to do it right.  It's going to be a great scene to look across the smoky parking lot over a sea of Cardinal and Gold and Purple and White.  The buses, the RVs, the flags, the smell of the BBQ, the taste of the beer.  THAT's definitely going to be fun.

Bumped from the diaries.

In his novel 1984 George Orwell wrote, "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face...forever."  Well, that was the first quote that popped into my head when I heard that Wesley Johnson was transferring.

It seems that ever since 2001 Cyclone basketball has been nothing but a glimmer of hope followed by the ever familiar boot stamping on our faces once again.  A second consecutive Big 12 championship is followed by flameouts to Baylor and Hampton.  Watching Jake Sullivan gamely try to run the offense from the point guard position can pretty much define the next few years of bad to below average teams who had a few moments but could never do better than the NIT.  

Throughout it all there was always the same refrain, "yeah, but look at the incoming players.  We'll be decent next year, good the year after that, and the year after that...look out."  The thing is, players like Jerome Harper or Chris Alexander or the Russian dude either never showed up or disappeared as soon as they did.  Just when the next supposedly great class was coming in we had the humiliation of the Eustachy pictures and it felt like we would never win a game again as coach after coach turned us down and an entire class threatened to never set foot in Ames.

Eventually we settled on Wayne Morgan and that class did show some promise, making a run to the NIT Final Four and the NCAA tournament 2nd round before crashing and burning just when expectations were beginning to be raised in that infamous "look out!" third year.  The defections continued unabated as Morgan was canned after that season.

McDermott was brought in to bring stability to the program and return it to the tournament.  I wasn't nearly as ecstatic about the hire as some people but I was willing to give him a chance because what other choice did we have?  Unfortunately the list of players leaving continued to grow longer.  We watched as players like Tasheed Carr and Shawn Taggart made valuable contributions to other schools at positions where we desperately needed the help.  Despite all of that we were once again hearing the familiar refrains of "we'll be better next year, good the year after that, then we'll bring in Harrison Barnes and look out!"  During this season I said that the biggest factor in McDermott's success or failure at ISU would be if he would able to keep players in the program.

You know it's spring when two things begin to pop up: dandelions and transfer rumors at Iowa State.  The familiar rumor cycle began, "I heard from a friend of a friend..."  followed closely by "I'll believe it when I see some proof..."  Unfortunately, more often than not, these rumors have been spot on.  This morning I saw the rumors and this afternoon I saw it was official.  Just like that Wesley Johnson was gone, taking with him almost any bit of optimism a Cyclone fan could muster.

This may have been the cruelest of them all.  Here was a kid who came out of nowhere who suddenly was dominating at every position he played.  He was an athletic freak who could out jump the big guys and out shoot the guards.  The type of player who could be the difference maker or the spark to reignite a program.  It was just a week ago that I looked at who was coming back in the rest of the Big 12.  Despite all of my built-in defense mechanisms I actually began to think that maybe we could actually get into the top half of the conference with a  few breaks.  "If Wes could stay healthy, if Lucca is as good as people say, if Brackins develops...if, if if."

Ha, I should have known.  Lucy will once again pull the football away from Charlie Brown, the boot will stamp on that face, and Iowa State basketball will always be three years away from "look out!"  Well, I'm still looking.

So, the question is, where do we go from here?  McDermott has done nothing to convince me that my earlier concerns were unfounded but I don't see firing him now as accomplishing anything.  Iowa State once again finished in the top 25 for basketball attendance but how long will fans show up for a crappy product?  Unfortunately, transfers like this keep pushing back the timetable of when actual results will be seen and it's getting tougher and tougher for me to see things ending well.  All I see is that damn boot.

From the diaries. --Chris

When you're in Kansas you don't really have much of an opportunity to meet many celebrities. Sure we may have produced Kirstie Alley and Paul Rudd, and Allen Ginsberg lived here until he died, but I've never seen those people and it's not exactly viewed as the national hot spot so the famous people here tend to be athletes. Obviously in Lawrence they're usually basketball players but once in a while you'll get someone else.

Today I decided to go do some studying at the Borders bookstore coffee shop and after a while this guy walks past and I think to myself, "wow, he really looks familiar." I see him again and think, "yeah, he totally looks like Mitch Holthus." My suspicions were pretty much confirmed when they called the name "Mitch" when his coffee was ready.

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Bumped from the Diaries. - CC

According to the Des Moines Register and Iowa State the NCAA Amateurism Certification program has ruled that freshman guard Lucca Staiger has been ruled ineligible for this year.  This is the maximum penalty the NCAA can dole out.  So what violation could possibly be severe enough to warrant that punishment?

He played on a team that paid two players.

Yes, that's it.  He played on a team that paid two players.  And he wasn't one of them.  The team he played on was considered to be a non-professional team by all of the German leagues they played in but apparently these two players received some sort of compensation over the NCAA's limit so an innocent player gets screwed.

This joins another in a long line of completely absurd rulings by the NCAA.  There are almost too many to recount but in the end it seems like the kids that try to do things the right way will get screwed if they slip up once and get a plane ticket to go to their grandma's funeral while they look the other way when Reggie Bush's family is living in a house they didn't pay for.

I had hoped that the NCAA had injected some common sense into their recent rulings in cases like Alvin Bowen raising his brother but it's clear that it's business as usual in Indianapolis.  You can get away with pretty much whatever you want and only receive a slap on the wrist as long as you're bringing in the big bucks but schools like Washington State and Iowa State, and especially guys like Lucca, will get screwed in the end.

I saw this link to a post on a Broncos blog talking about how their homefield advantage is really suffering lately.  Who can forget them blowing n fact, it pretty much shocked me how bad they've been.
http://broncotalk.net/2007/09/wheres-the-magic-in-mile-high/

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