Iowa Highway Ends (etc.)

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.

This is a timed post.

Hmm.

It is, of course, not wrong for Bill Fennelly to promote his son to assistant coach. Billy Fennelly is qualified. However, it is a bit disappointing for a variety of reasons: 1) It would have been the perfect time to bring in “new blood” to the program; 2) Iowa State isn’t a place that someone can get away with nepotism charges; 3) It impedes ISU fans’ ability to make jokes about Brian Ferentz. 🙂

It is the perception of nepotism that will be the hard part to overcome. That comes with the territory in cases like this. (See, for example, the Kansas State fans who fear Bill Snyder is grooming his son Sean to be the next football coach.)

P.S. The ISU athletic department spelled Lyndsey Medders’ name correctly in the press release but not Lindsey Wilson. Odd, that.

P.P.S. The former is, of course, now Lyndsey (Medders) Fennelly.

SI’s Andy Staples chronicles an alternate 21st century in college football that starts with Florida beating LSU in 2004 and climaxes in — well, an SEC rematch for the 2011 national championship.

In the process, Iowa State hires Ron Zook instead of Gene Chizik and then falls off the radar forever as a true Conferencepocalypse happens:

With the landscape shifting rapidly, Delany and Slive realize their leagues must also grow. Slive talks Texas A&M out of the Pac-10 and into the SEC. The Pac-10 replaces Texas A&M with Utah. Sensing weakness in the ACC, the SEC also grabs Florida State, Miami and Virginia Tech. The Big Ten then takes Nebraska, North Carolina, Virginia and Georgia Tech from the ACC. Three conferences (the Big Ten, the Pac-16 and the SEC) rule college athletics. The remaining Big East football schools and ACC schools merge, also adding Kansas, Kansas State and TCU to form a middle class between the haves and the have-nots.

Iowa State and Baylor are, as usual, conspicuous in their absence.

By the multiverse theory, this happened somewhere. I’m glad I don’t live there. Also by the multiverse theory, somewhere else, the Cubs went to the World Series in 2003 and Steve Bartman wasn’t responsible for six years of SEC domination — and Paul Rhoads probably doesn’t come to Iowa State. If this isn’t the best possible world, it’s at least in the better half.