Iowa Highway Ends (etc.)

VALLEY DOWLING VALLEY DOWLING VALLEY DOWLING VALLEY DOWLING VALLEY DOWLING VALLEY DOWLING VALLEY DOWLING VALLEY DOWLING VALLEY DOWLING VALLEY DOWLING VALLEY DOWLING VALLEY DOWLING VALLEY DOWLING VALLEY DOWLING VALLEY DOWLING (etc.)

I believe that the move to reseed brackets in the semifinals is beneficial overall, even if it takes out “east vs. west” championships. Until the eastern Iowa schools can get over the hump, when the Class 4A title game comes, we’ll be seeing this again…and again…and again.

November 21, 2009, 5:07 PM: The second-to-last time the words “IowaSt.” would appear on a scoreboard at Faurot Field in Columbia, Missouri.

Iowa State at Missouri 2009 was, at the time we left the stadium (and went to see the ISU volleyball team play Missouri right after), just another game in a series dating back a century. But that was going to change.

Two weeks after this game, Nebraska lost the Big 12 championship to Texas on a controversial last-second field goal. Days later, the Big Ten Conference announced it would be exploring expansion. Conferencepocalypse I had begun — and Missouri was unhappy — and this game contributed to it.

How? Even though Missouri had a better record, the Insight Bowl selected Iowa State. The Cyclones beat Minnesota in what to date is the latest-scheduled bowl game (5 PM CST on New Year’s Eve) in team history. Because it aired on NFL Network, it’s also one of the lowest-TV-rated bowl games ever, possibly even the lowest. Missouri was pushed down the pecking order to the Texas Bowl, where it lost to Navy.

In a piece that appears to exist now only on my hard drive, the Kansas City Star‘s Mike DeArmond blogged:

If the Big Ten calls, Missouri WILL listen and with an enthusiastic ear.
I’ve been told exactly that by numerous sources close to and within Mizzou. …
Could the situation within the Big 12 Conference be any worse that three years running the Missouri football team being publicly slighted by being sent to a lower bowl than it has earned?

Missouri, of course, did not go to the Big Ten. But then Conferencepocalypse II happened, Oklahoma decided it needed to show it was just as desired as Texas (again), and Missouri got scared (again) of being condemned to a Conference of Misfit Toys. It followed Texas A&M into the welcoming embrace of the Southeastern Conference, where all the teams love each other equally and there’s absolutely no favoritism whatsoever.

Saturday, Missouri will be hosting Tennessee on a game carried by SEC Network. Rivalries that started closer to the Louisiana Purchase than the present day have been buried for nearly a decade. Iowa State, after a final visit to Columbia in 2011 — the last ISU football game that was not televised — will never play there again.

Columbia, Missouri, November 21, 2009 — It was entirely a whim. It turned out to be more meaningful than that.

I happened to have the Friday and Saturday the week before Thanksgiving off. Iowa State (6-5, 3-4), under new coach Paul Rhoads, was seeking its sixth seven-win season of the decade. Missouri (6-4, 2-4) was also seeking its seventh win and jockeying with ISU for bowl position.

After finding out Missouri was selling a four-pack in the south end zone for $96, it became a family affair. The game was not televised, so if we wanted to see it we’d have to be there in person. And, of course, Columbia is an easy drive from Traer.

On the way to Columbia for Mom to see the 1986 ISU-Missouri game, I apparently asked one too many times where we were. I was handed a map and told to follow Highway 63. A roadgeek was born. (It was Halloween weekend. I’ve been told we hit sorority row and made out like bandits. ISU then won the Telephone Trophy 37-14.)

The 2009 game was an early afternoon kickoff, allowing time to see campus beforehand, including MU’s famous columns.

The most memorable moment came in the stands, where a fan with a noisemaking device trumpeted the ISU first-down fanfare when appropriate. Security confiscated it despite a spirited “KEEP THE HORN! KEEP THE HORN!” from the entire ISU fanbase in the south end zone. (Eight months later, everyone would learn what a vuvuzela was.)

Iowa State led at halftime but was outscored 24-7 in the second half, for a final of 34-24. ISU finished 6-6. Missouri beat Kansas the following Saturday for its eighth regular-season win.

Tomorrow: The aftermath

(I am glad ISU did not hire P.J. Fleck. At least, I think I think so.)

For the second time in three years — and by extension, the second time ever — North Tama volleyball is in the state tournament.

The Redhawks will be playing a late quarterfinal tonight against Le Mars Gehlen, one of three private schools in the Class 1A tournament. In 2017, NT lost to Springville, which did not go on to win (Janesville did).

Gehlen is North Tama’s westernmost opponent in any sport ever, surpassing last Friday’s state football opponent, Woodbury Central. Those fans sure must be glad for a finished four-lane US 20 (so this is how I get this Sioux City Journal story linked!). I really have to give props to the IHSAA for protecting the top four seeds even if it didn’t stop the Redhawks from blowing a 17-point second-half lead at home. (Also, was the week of the first round of playoffs really the time to launch a website redesign, IHSAA? Especially since your last one nuked at least a decade of archives?)

Besides North Tama, there are five schools outside the biggest classes with football and volleyball teams in the final eight (* means those football teams made the semifinals):

• Grundy Center*, FB A/VB 2A
• West Liberty, FB 2A/VB 3A
• Western Dubuque*, FB 3A/VB 4A
• Sergeant Bluff-Luton*, FB 3A/VB 4A
• North Scott, FB 3A/VB 4A

Five of the largest-class schools are in both (FB 4A/VB 5A): Ankeny, Cedar Falls, Dowling*, Valley*, and Waukee.