Column: Iowa St's moment a joy and all too rare in the game
AMES, Iowa (AP) - Two big 装備するs were parked next to Reiman Plaza, the green space that leads to the south end zone 入り口 of Jack Trice Stadium, home to a most ありそうもない success story.
The トラックで運ぶs were 配達するing sound and lighting 器具／備品 to go with the stacks of metal bleachers, piles of plywood, and crates and 事例／患者s 含む／封じ込めるing the necessary parts to turn Iowa 明言する／公表する into the 震源地 of college football this 週末.
The サイクロンs are having a moment.
No. 9 Iowa 明言する／公表する is 準備するing to play what is undeniably the biggest home game in the 129-year history of the program. The 最高の，を越す-10 matchup with 競争相手 Iowa on Saturday drew ESPN´s popular pregame show, "College GameDay," to Reiman Plaza.
After １０年間s of 存在 a college football afterthought, Iowa 明言する／公表する has reached the big time. And the ぼんやり現れるing 不確定 of 会議／協議会 再編成 is not about to spoil this moment for the サイクロンs and their 支持者s.
"I´m just trying to really 焦点（を合わせる） on this season and this team and give them my 十分な attention and 評価. And the 未来 will sort of take care of itself," former Iowa 明言する／公表する quarterback 下落する Rosenfels said. "You just don´t have much 支配（する）／統制する over it."
The North end zone scoreboard is shown at Jack Trice Stadium, Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2021, in Ames, Iowa. No. 9 Iowa 明言する／公表する is 準備するing to play what is undeniably the biggest home game in the 129-year history of the program. The 最高の，を越す-10 matchup with 競争相手 Iowa on Saturday drew ESPN's popular pregame show, "College GameDay." (AP Photo/Ralph Russo)
Such is life in college football´s 広大な middle class, where the whims and wants of the sport's blue 血s 形態／調整 the landscape and somewhat 無作為に 決定する the 有産国 and havenots.
Texas and Oklahoma made the Big 12 a 力／強力にする Five 会議／協議会, which 生成するd the 歳入, 資源s and （危険などに）さらす that Iowa 明言する／公表する has used to transform its football program. But in July, the Longhorns and Sooners decided they will leave Iowa 明言する／公表する and the 残り／休憩（する） of the Big 12 behind to join the Southeastern 会議／協議会 in 2025.
This has been something of a 傾向 in college football over the last １０年間 or so. When there is an 反乱 in an unusual place, the 設立 tends to 人物／姿／数字 out ways to 押し進める it 負かす／撃墜する.
Boise 明言する／公表する used the BCS to raise its profile and become a 国家の 力／強力にする. When the BCS was 取って代わるd by the College Football プレーオフ it 設立するd more 明確に the 力／強力にする Five 会議／協議会s and their big-money schools, その上の marginalizing schools outside those leagues. Boise 明言する／公表する hasn't been a 国家の 競争相手 since.
Not long ago, there were six 力／強力にする 会議／協議会s in major college football. The Big East held equal s tatus with the Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, 大西洋 Coast 会議／協議会 and Pac-12.
Even after Miami and Virginia Tech were snatched from the Big East, its status (and the money that （機の）カム with it) 供給するd a 壇・綱領・公約 for schools such as Rutgers, UConn and USF to have their moments. 結局, the 会議／協議会 was poached to death by its peers.
Now the Big 12 is in danger of losing its place inside the velvet ropes - and Iowa 明言する／公表する has been here before. During the last 一連の会議、交渉／完成する of 再編成, the サイクロンs were の中で the schools in danger of 存在 relegated to a いっそう少なく lucrative and prestigious 会議／協議会 as Texas twice flirted with the Pac-12.
Nebraska, Texas A&M, Colorado and Missouri fled the Big 12, untethering themselves from Texas.
Iowa 明言する／公表する, along with Kansas, Kansas 明言する／公表する, Oklahoma 明言する／公表する, Baylor and Texas Tech, didn´t have an escape hatch. Tied to Texas and Oklahoma, it worked out 井戸／弁護士席 for a while. The Big 12 was paid billions for its television 権利s, with Oklahoma and Texas essentially 基金ing their 競争.
The Big 12 has a 計画（する） for life after Texas and Oklahoma, but it will not be as profitable and it won´t be as 利益／興味ing without the chance for the remaining eight to punch above their 負わせる class and occasionally connect.
As a member of the Big Eight and Big 12, Iowa 明言する／公表する spent １０年間s playing the 失敗させる／負かす to Oklahoma, Texas and Nebraska. Iowa 明言する／公表する never （機の）カム の近くに to winning the Big Eight and is 11-91-2 against the Sooners and Longhorns; four of those victories have come in the last four seasons.
In the 中央の-1990s, Troy Davis had 連続した 2,000-yard 急ぐing seasons for the サイクロンs and a 走者-up finish in Heisman トロフィー 投票（する）ing. It was the 最高潮の場面 of two １０年間s of futility during which Iowa 明言する／公表する never played in a bowl game.
Former Iowa 明言する／公表する quarterback Todd Bandhauer played on teams that won a total of nine games from 1994-98. The program was run on shoestring 予算s, he said, and even getting a new pair of cleats during the season was a big ask.
"It was just really difficult to 新採用する to Iowa 明言する／公表する when you´re 基本的に playing in the 同等（の） and training in the 同等（の） of high school 施設s or いっそう少なく," Bandhauer said. "I don´t think we have that level of 不平等 now."
Dan McCarney, an Iowa native who played for the Hawkeyes in the 1970s, took over as coach in Ames in 1995 and quickly realized the サイクロンs were way behind the 競争.
"The 施設s were so far in the Dark Ages. Fundraising was in the Dark Ages," McCarney said.
The サイクロンs went to five bowl games in 12 seasons under McCarney, showing modest success was attainable. Under 現在の coach Matt Campbell, the サイクロンs have ripped off four straight winning season, something that hadn´t been done in Ames in a century.
What changed?
"The college football landscape was 全く different," Bandhauer said. "And now there is just so much more money in college football. And Iowa 明言する／公表する was definitely on the 肯定的な receiving end of that, 存在 in the Big 12."
Iowa 明言する／公表する has spent $330 million on 運動競技の 施設s during 運動競技の director Jamie Pollard´s 17-year 任期. The stadium now has the third-largest capacity in the Big 12 behind Texas and Oklahoma at 61,000.
That かかわり合い helped 誘惑する Campbell to Ames in 2015. The 41-year-old Ohio native was a wunderkind at Toledo, one of the youngest coaches in FBS, and he went 35-15 at the 中央の-American 会議／協議会 school.
Campbell believed in Iowa 明言する／公表する´s 可能性のある and then 打ち明けるd it.
"It´s not 平易な to be done. We know that," Campbell said. "I do think as you come to the stadium, last Saturday you walk out to the field, you get this fan base 支援する, you see the skyline has changed here. You take it in, there´s a 広大な／多数の／重要な sense of 評価. There is pride about 存在 a サイクロン 権利 now."
Last season, Iowa 明言する／公表する matched the school 記録，記録的な／記録する with nine 勝利，勝つs, reached the Big 12 肩書を与える game for the first time and finished ninth in the AP 最高の，を越す 25, by far the サイクロンs´ best 最高位の ever.
Almost every 重要な player is 支援する for the サイクロンs, 含むing preseason All-Americans Breece Hall at running 支援する, Charlie Kolar at tight end and マイク Rose at linebacker.
College football´s 経済的な engine is driven by the 伝統的な 力／強力にするs -- Alabama and Ohio 明言する／公表する, USC and Notre Dame, Texas and Oklahoma -- but teams such as Iowa 明言する／公表する energize a season.
"This is what college football is about," retired Iowa 明言する／公表する sports （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） director Tom Kroeschell said.
Continued consolidation of college football around the biggest brands will make it いっそう少なく likely for the next Iowa 明言する／公表する to have its moment. The sport will be worse for it.
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Follow Ralph D. Russo at https://twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP and listen at http://www.APpodcasts.com/
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労働者s 築く a 行う／開催する／段階 for ESPN's "College GameDay" in Reiman Plaza outside Jack Trice Stadium, Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2021, in Ames, Iowa. No. 9 Iowa 明言する／公表する is 準備するing to play what is undeniably the biggest home game in the 129-year history of the program. The 最高の，を越す-10 matchup with 競争相手 Iowa on Saturday drew ESPN's popular pregame show, "College GameDay." (AP Photo/Ralph Russo)
FILE - In this Saturday, Sept. 4, 2021, とじ込み／提出する photo, Iowa 明言する／公表する 長，率いる coach Matt Campbell looks to the scoreboard during the second half of an NCAA college football game against Northern Iowa in Ames, Iowa. No. 9 Iowa 明言する／公表する is 準備するing to play what is undeniably the biggest home game in the 129-year history of the program. The 最高の，を越す-10 matchup with 競争相手 Iowa on Saturday drew ESPN's popular pregame show, "College GameDay." (AP Photo/Matthew Putney とじ込み／提出する)
