- Fewer kids in Iowa in general, which will only get worse with current trends
- Iowa (and the US in general) becoming much less attractive for international students
- Cuts to UNI academic programs have decimated the marketability of the school
- ISU has become much more attractive and even U of I has with improved facilities post-flood
- UNI’s gameday atmosphere is awful at both FB and MBB, and I say this as someone who’s attended a lot of games over the past decade
- Their ticket prices for everything are ridiculous
All of these are factors leading to the decline of UNI athletics. It’s always been a suitcase campus and unfortunately, the folks running game ops have really struggled while their teams haven’t played exciting styles to watch. The games aren’t worth students sticking around to watch on the weekends. It’s very sad as my wife is an incredibly proud UNI alum, but there are a lot of reasons things have dried up and it really feels like the only chance for a change is a total restart with younger, hungrier leaders - AD, FB, and MBB. Lots of folks we know who used to be die-hard Panthers and now have no interest in attending games.