BIG XII South

[PlymouthCy]

Sean Keeler had a great colum on the inequities between the Big XII North and South. Or as he called it the Southwest Conference on steroids:
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060726/SPORTS05/607260383/1003

 

[ISUFan22]

It was a very good article. Here is some locker room material for the Cyclone football team...

The North needs a marquee program to break out, the way Oklahoma did under Stoops and Texas under Brown.

"It's critical for Nebraska to have success, no question," Davie said. "The North's dependent on Nebraska a little bit, in my mind, for national exposure and national attention. Kansas, Iowa State, Missouri and Kansas State are great stories and they do have great coaching, but on a national scale, it's still about Nebraska, Colorado."

 

[CyinCo]

While there are obvious financial and facility quality differences, the game is played on the field by the players and coaches. I think it really comes down to the ability of your team and coaches more so. You can't look at an athletic budget for football and say "that team is twice as good as we are because there budget is double".

 

[URBCLONE]

CyinCO,

Couldn't agree more. Yesterday's article in the Omaha World Herald mentioned that UT has flat screen TVs above the urinals in the lockerroom. At some point isn't it overkill? If games were won and lost because of budgets, Notre Dame would win the NC in FB every year. Money helps to build facilities etc, but it takes great players and great coaches to win National Titles. It is the same way with tradition. What is tradition? It is people winning games. There was no tradition at KSU before Snyder. Great coaches find a way to get it done.

 

[ISUFan22]

While there are obvious financial and facility quality differences, the game is played on the field by the players and coaches. I think it really comes down to the ability of your team and coaches more so. You can't look at an athletic budget for football and say "that team is twice as good as we are because there budget is double".

[FONT=&quot]You are correct in part.

However, bigger budgets allow for better facilities, better recruiting, more exposure, etc.

If you hav not yet done so, read this article...

Link

That's about as real as it gets.

Granted, there is a direct correlation between winning and budget size. More you win, bigger the budget you have. Seems the bigger the budget you have, easier it is to win.

A catch 22 of sorts.

ISU has been improving on both. With Pollard at the helm and some new faces in Cyclone coaching, I think we'll continue to see great strides being made![/FONT]

 

[PlymouthCy]

I think that it should be a testiment to Mac how he has built the football program without near the budget of the south schools, or for that matter even the north schools of the Big XII.

 

[ferdnand1]

By that link---Iowa State should strive to be in the TOP-35 nationally in revenue & budget.

 

[ISUFan22]

I think that it should be a testiment to Mac how he has built the football program without near the budget of the south schools, or for that matter even the north schools of the Big XII.

That's exactly what it is. D-Mac has done more with far, far less. I can only wonder what D-Mac could do with the tools of a Texas, Oklahoma, etc.

 

[EggMcClone]

I read a piece somewhere that claimed that focusing on recruiting Texas hurts the north schools because they're trying to win with players a tier below the ones that go to UT and OU. They said that those teams needed to find other recruiting niches because the Texas schools and OU will almost always take nearly all of the very best leaving the North schools to go after slightly less talented players.

 

[iowastatechris]

I think that it is fair to say that the north teams are less likely to receive the best players which will go to OU and to Texas, but it must be noted that Nebraska also has a bit of a recruiting pull that can be put up their near Texas and OU ( its not as high now as it was about 7 years ago, but they are still a well known brand of football capable of receiving a lot of attention). I hope that ISU is able to get up to the level of Texas and OU but first we have to prove it on the field ( win the north title) we have been so close the last couple of years, hopefully we can get it done this year, GO 'CLONES

 

[Wesley]

I thought we used to recruit heavily in Florida. Nebraska is making a big splash in California. KState is taking away all other schools recruits. Colorado is still thinking. Missouri hopes to do well in Missouri.

 

[CyForPresident]

I read a piece somewhere that claimed that focusing on recruiting Texas hurts the north schools because they're trying to win with players a tier below the ones that go to UT and OU. They said that those teams needed to find other recruiting niches because the Texas schools and OU will almost always take nearly all of the very best leaving the North schools to go after slightly less talented players.

CHICAGO. I wish we would focus on Chicago and Illinois more than we do. There is a lot of talent there that is close enough to get. I would love to see a home and home with Illinois to get some exposure. I know that we would be recruiting against Norte Dame, Illinois, and Iowa but this combined with still recruting Texas would help a lot. I wish we would get some more athletes from Florida and California too. SPEED is the key.

 

[isucy86]

No Matter Where we Recruit, We Won't Get the Cream of the Crop

Other than instate kids, whether we recruit Texas, Florida, California, Illinois, etc we will never get more than an occasional elite kid. If ISU is to be a Big 12 power Mac needs to consistently identify diamonds in the rough and develop them into top Big 12 players. On top of that Mac needs to do a great job on gameday.

At this point I'd give Mac a B in talent ID, and a C on gameday.

 

[clone33]

Its just so hard for a team like Iowa State, geographically to get a great player from texas. We are the northernmost team in the big 12, and most big 12 quality talent will only go as far as Oklahoma, and sometimes creep their way into kansas or nebraska. But with the facilities we will have, up until the new ones are put in, it is close to impossible to get a big 12 ready player from texas. As isucy86 said, Mac needs to be able to develop average players into great players and then maybe it will be easier to get that talent to Ames. It would also help a lot if we could play an Oklahoma or a Texas in the big 12 title game and give them a good game. that would impress the recruits who would be watching.
As we have seen with Blythe, Meyer, Arnaud and others, Iowa isnt a state that should be overlooked for recruits. But we are constantly getting beat by iowa for the big name recruits. We need to have something to offer to these guys that iowa cant. (ie, a chance to play texas, oklahoma, etc in the big 12 title game). Many things need to be done, but all roads begin with us winning football games. END RANT