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Williams & Blum: How much should we pay attention to Iowa State in preseason Big 12 rankings

Aiden Wyatt

Aiden Wyatt

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Iowa State was recently picked to finish last in the Big 12 by a group of writers at ESPN. On today’s show, Chris Williams & Brent Blum analyze how much these preseason projections actually matter in 2026. The guys go team-by-team and give early thoughts on the Big 12, all courtesy of Mechdyne.


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Williams & Blum: How much should we pay attention to Iowa State in preseason Big 12 rankings - Cyclone Fanatic

Iowa State was recently picked to finish last in the Big 12 by a group of writers at ESPN. On today’s show, Chris Williams & Brent Blum analyze how much these preseason projections actually matter in 2026. The guys go team-by-team and give early thoughts on the Big 12, all courtesy of Mechdyne.
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It's pretty frustrating to hear analysts throw us back into the dumpster as a lost cause. There's a lot of ignorance around the level of support the program has in terms of fan support, facilities, and yes, even money. A lot of national voices assumed we'd be taking the private equity money. It's wild how far perception of the program lags. We are still seen as Walden's program in the 90s.

When it comes to this upcoming season specifically, I understand the instinct to put us at the bottom of the conference. There are just so many unknowns. But the conference is a complete wild card. Assuming we're going back to the dark ages in Ames is based off of ignorance.
 
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acoustimac said:
Easy answer…nada…zilch…zero. The writers make picks based off of what they do or don’t know. They don’t know anything yet.
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And technically neither do we. It sucks and I don't think we'll finish last but someone has to be picked last and we barely had a handful of the entire roster coming back.
 
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A random fans could do a better job of doing preseason rankings. I feel that way about all sports, not just Big 12 football rankings.
 
I would expect a low ranking with so much roster turnover and coaching transition. I don't know If I would put ISU last, though.

Is Oklahoma State in that much better situation than Iowa State? OSU's new coach did bring a bunch of his players from UNT, but ... well, that won't guarantee anything.

What about KSU?
 
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SolarGarlic said:
It's pretty frustrating to hear analysts throw us back into the dumpster as a lost cause. There's a lot of ignorance around the level of support the program has in terms of fan support, facilities, and yes, even money. A lot of national voices assumed we'd be taking the private equity money. It's wild how far perception of the program lags. We are still seen as Walden's program in the 90s.

When it comes to this upcoming season specifically, I understand the instinct to put us at the bottom of the conference. There are just so many unknowns. But the conference is a complete wild card. Assuming we're going back to the dark ages in Ames is based off of ignorance.
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Most of them are just plain lazy and should be disregarded as such. It is a huge turnover, so it's an easy pick for those types of "analysts".
 
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SolarGarlic said:
It's pretty frustrating to hear analysts throw us back into the dumpster as a lost cause. There's a lot of ignorance around the level of support the program has in terms of fan support, facilities, and yes, even money. A lot of national voices assumed we'd be taking the private equity money. It's wild how far perception of the program lags. We are still seen as Walden's program in the 90s.

When it comes to this upcoming season specifically, I understand the instinct to put us at the bottom of the conference. There are just so many unknowns. But the conference is a complete wild card. Assuming we're going back to the dark ages in Ames is based off of ignorance.
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Win games that matter and that perception will change. Matt did a lot for the program but he never got over the hill.
 
It doesn't concern me a whole lot because we have a new coach & something like 85+ new players to the roster.

I would say, this team probably has a low ceiling- 8 wins if all goes right.
 
Here are my preseason prediction predictions: Phil Steele 4-8, Athlon-Lindy’s 5-7. Everyone is expecting a lot of penalties, missed tackles, broken coverages and turnovers .
 
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SolarGarlic said:
It's pretty frustrating to hear analysts throw us back into the dumpster as a lost cause. There's a lot of ignorance around the level of support the program has in terms of fan support, facilities, and yes, even money. A lot of national voices assumed we'd be taking the private equity money. It's wild how far perception of the program lags. We are still seen as Walden's program in the 90s.

When it comes to this upcoming season specifically, I understand the instinct to put us at the bottom of the conference. There are just so many unknowns. But the conference is a complete wild card. Assuming we're going back to the dark ages in Ames is based off of ignorance.
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What schools are clearly going to be below us, and why?

We haven’t really moved up the food chain though. In terms of resources, we’re still essentially at the bottom, although adding G5 to the conference helped in that regard

Fortunately, the sport has changed, with more parity overall. The portal, revenue sharing, and expanded CFP making it closer to MLB. Even the poorest MLB franchise has a chance if run well and with good scouting

 
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SolarGarlic said:
It's pretty frustrating to hear analysts throw us back into the dumpster as a lost cause. There's a lot of ignorance around the level of support the program has in terms of fan support, facilities, and yes, even money. A lot of national voices assumed we'd be taking the private equity money. It's wild how far perception of the program lags. We are still seen as Walden's program in the 90s.

When it comes to this upcoming season specifically, I understand the instinct to put us at the bottom of the conference. There are just so many unknowns. But the conference is a complete wild card. Assuming we're going back to the dark ages in Ames is based off of ignorance.
Click to expand...
There is a lot of ignorance and lack of information. That said - I would probably pick us last if I had to rank all the teams.
We lost our coach, best recruits and 90% of our best players. Only OSU had as much turmoil, but they brought in a lot of a proven winning team with their new coach .
Which worked great for Indiana. I am a die hard clone fan - just trying to be objective.
Will we be last? Who knows. But probably a safe bet for bottom 3 or 4.
 
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I think it is harder to rank the bottom half than the top half. Hopefully, we can beat enough of the other bottom feeders to bump us up in to the top half for the end of the season.
 
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isucy86 said:
It doesn't concern me a whole lot because we have a new coach & something like 85+ new players to the roster.

I would say, this team probably has a low ceiling- 8 wins if all goes right.
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It would seem reasonable that it would take a few years to recruit to the system and develop them. I'd be happy with 6-6 if there's decent execution.
 
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