Last week, it came on the basketball court, as ESPN blogger Eamon Brennan ranks the coaching jobs. Iowa State was eighth of ten in the Big 12.
The harsh winters might detract recruits and, even though it features the Big 12’s best restaurant in Hickory Park, Ames isn’t one of the country’s most happenin’ towns.
Most of the Big 12 has warm-weather (or at least not freezing cold) locations for basketball — and I must admit, it’s nice to walk to a game in short sleeves — but come on. Columbia is going to be the coldest city in the SEC, and Brennan had nothing but praise there. Iowa City’s identical to Ames in climate, and the Nebraska job is ranked 11th out of 12 on the Big Ten list, but there are no weather swipes there aside from saying Minneapolis “is a great city but a freezing cold one.”
We get it already. A whole bunch of people think the state of Iowa, and/or Iowa State in particular, is a pockmark on the vast wasteland of the Great Flyover that is lucky to have running water, let alone Internet access, and when teams graciously (or otherwise) keep Ames on the schedule we should thank our “betters” every chance we can. They don’t have to keep saying it.