Last week SBNation calculated the “greatest” sports states by historical winning records of the pro and major-college teams that played in those states. Iowa is the, um, least greatest — one-thousandth of a point behind Missouri and two-thousandths behind Illinois. (The 1990s Chicago Bulls were no match for the 19-everything-except-the-90s Northwestern.)
Iowa, you have the Hawkeyes, who have been decent at football and basketball for a long time. But you also have Iowa St., which has been pretty bad for over a century (basketball is .495 over 105 years, football is .450 over 114 years). From what I’ve seen, it’s somewhat rare for such a not-good program in a major conference to have been around for so long.
We’re tenacious! Considering how close Iowa State has been to not being in a major conference during this decade, I’ll take the “rarity” designation.
Historical note: The author did not included the 1949-50 Waterloo Hawks. The 19-43 record wouldn’t have helped.