The cyclones.com website has become notoriously difficult to navigate in the last few years, probably because (like all the other Learfield IMG websites out there) it was “optimized for mobile”. It even works differently in different browsers.
One thing added at some point is an opponent-by-opponent series history of the type typically found in the yearly media guides, which themselves are difficult to find. The 2021-22 women’s basketball media guide, now rebranded as a “Fact book”, is for some reason tucked in a URL dated May 6, 2015, and is not accessible under the “Historical” submenu in Safari. I was looking in the women’s basketball guide for some historical information, and discovered a weird circumstance: The website’s opponent series history and the media guide opponent series history do not agree. I don’t know it it is a classification issue regarding the earliest years of the program, a neglected non-entry of games, phantom games (see here), or some combination.
Online, the series history vs. Iowa through and including the 2021-22 season has a record of 18-26 (44 games). In the fact book, the series history vs. Iowa not including the 2021-22 season has a record of 22-29 (51 games). The website, compared with the fact book, does not have the first of two games in four days against Iowa in December 1975, including the very first; the second of two games in two weeks in February 1977; both of two games in three days in February 1978 in Des Moines; and all four games between 2007 and 2010.
On the other hand, if there was a game played December 2, 1975, nobody reported on it. The Daily Iowan on December 2 covered Iowa’s loss at home to Coe the night before but says the next game is December 5, referenced above. I’m not sure it can be solved by re-dating it, either, because a year earlier, the DI has Iowa playing at Grandview College on December 3, 1974. Granted, college women’s basketball coverage in the 1970s is the Dark Ages, but we should at least be able to agree on dates and opponents, right?
February 1978 was the AIAW Tournament in Des Moines. The Ames Tribune matches the women’s fact book, with a loss to Iowa February 23 and a win Feb. 25. Apparently, ISU played two games on the 25th, beating Iowa then losing to Drake.
Online, the series history vs. Kansas State including both regular-season games of 2021-22 has a record of 45-51 (96 games). In the fact book, the series history vs. Kansas State not including the 2021-22 season has a record of 44-53 (97 games). The online list is missing the first two games the teams played against each other, in 1974 and 1975, and the second matchup of the 1987-88 Big Eight season, a win on February 23 in Ames. (See p. 96-97 of the KSU WBB 2021-22 media guide.)
There may be more discrepancies throughout, and I’m not able to hunt them all down. I hope they can be cleared up, in one direction or another, so everything is in sync. I mean, how can records be missing from this century? Do they want to make Mrs. Otzelberger (née Alison Lacey) unhappy?