everyone is ripping on his recruiting. I don't want to make excuses, but imagine how hard it is to recruit at a high enough level when the Big 12 was so unstable. Something like that would have a bigger effect on schools like ISU, Kansas, and KSU then the ones down south closer to the main recruiting areas. So I think conference realignment may have hurt ISU football. All of the negative press for the big 12 and negative recruiting.