Iowa isn't marketing? All I heard about in November was "hey Iowa fans, bring your football ticket stub and get into the mens basketball game for $10"! That sounds like marketing to me...
And I bet if you take a look at those games, attendance was higher than it was when people had to pay $25 to get in.
My point is, this whole thing that ISU fans are more loyal than Iowa fans is based on nothing. Iowa has averaged higher attendance in almost all sports than ISU for years. Not to mention, a huge number of fans travel for bowl games, tournament games (yeah, those two tourney games), and so on. The fact that for the first 4 home games of the season attendance has been low is a moot point.
It's kind of funny how people can talk about me using "circular logic", when in fact they're doing the same thing. I'm not questioning how loyal the ISU fan base is - it's very loyal. Iowa increased season ticket sales over last year (I believe), in both football and basketball, despite the poor previous seasons. Iowa also averaged only 200 less people at basketball games than ISU did.
I understand the point that basketball attendance this year has been poor - it has been. The competition has been poor, the team has been poor, late nights on week nights, and high ticket prices make it difficult for many fans to want to get out there and watch the game. It's just how it is. ISU football fans showed up in droves this season - but you can't tell me that marketing and an attractive schedule (Oklahoma, Iowa, Texas, KSU, and CU) didn't play a part in that - because it definitely did.