No kidding. ISU played Kansas early in the year in Ames and had TCU mid October, UT on Halloween, and OSU in mid November. I have zero issue with the scheduling at all. ISU got the schedule it wanted for only 6 home games by not having a home game on either end of Thanksgiving break.
Last year ISU had OU here on Nov 1st and Tech here on Nov 22nd.
People need to remember in the old big 12 it was nearly impossible to play the south teams late as you generally played cross division games early and teams from the North Division were always the last 3-4 games of the season.
Call me crazy but I would rather play KU, KSU, and WV late to help create and strengthen rivalries especially if they are meaningful games to end the season.