Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard talks to media during Cyclone Tailgate Tour at Curate on may 18, 2026, in Des Moines, Iowa. © Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Once again, what the Cyclone Tailgate Tour giveth, the national sports world taketh. Remember wrestling coach Kevin Dresser’s no-holds verbal takedown regarding the college athlete gambling investigation a while back at an event in Paton, Iowa?
The most recent gem on this annual statewide tour of Iowa State coaches and administrators taking their message directly to the public came during Monday afternoon’s stop in Des Moines.
The gaggle that surrounded athletics director Jamie Pollard.
The conversation about the Big Ten and SEC disregarding College Sports Commission rules.
The Pollard comments that went viral.
“The four commissioners spent a lot of money creating the CSC,” he told reporters. “To have two of the conferences not want to adhere to it is perplexing. If you didn’t want rules, then why did you create this entity? That’s what’s frustrating. The same people that say they want rules only want rules if they don’t apply to them.”
“Let them break away … But if you’re going to do it, you don’t get to just do it in football and then keep all your other sports with us. Take them all. See how fun it is.”
The outspoken veteran AD also said this: “I would turn it around and say, we should break away from them.”
And to that, I say it’s about time someone with clout publicly stood up to the bad guys of college sports. Someone had to do it, and for someone with the national credentials Jamie Pollard has, people might this time be listening.
You don’t have to agree with what he told reporters Monday in Des Moines. You may even disagree vehemently. But at least someone publicly took the initiative to say what many others have been thinking — that it’s high time someone calls out the conferences that want to rule a college sports world once governed by the NCAA.
Bring it on. Don’t let your gold-plated door hit you in your big fat wads of cash on the way out.
Just because the same conference won men’s and women’s NCAA basketball tournaments, and the past three College Football Playoffs, their trophies say nothing about winning the right to make their own rules. But really, does anyone expect humbleness from the Big Ten-SEC Power Two?
Absolutely not.
Pollard adding his respected voice to this national narrative isn’t surprising. Of the five Iowa State ADs I’ve known and covered, he’s easily the most forthright. Agree with him or not, you’re going to get an opinion (and sometimes maybe even an earful).
And that’s not always a bad thing.
If his words can spark constructive discussion and then change, he deserves a medal.
The Big Ten and SEC threatening a split from the others?
That’s likely not happening. They need the rest of college sports as much as the others need the Big Two.
Can you imagine calling yourself a national champion when you’re only competing against yourselves?
Laughable.
Would schools really break away from the Big Ten and the SEC?
Hopefully there’s some middle ground. There are TV contracts to consider.
Could we be near the end of what’s been a great Cy-Hawk series?
Geez, I hope not.
Agree or disagree with what Pollard said. That’s your prerogative. Hopefully it sparks not just national-level conversation, but also some national-level action.
(Columnist Randy Peterson, a past Iowa Sportswriter of the Year winner, can be reached at [email protected] or at any Okoboji-area beverage/food establishment between the hours of open and close.)
