The poster "Al_4_State" on Cyclone Fanatic provided some good reasons why ISU would/should always be in a P5 conference if the B12 was to dissolve in the future. Figured it was worthy..... Here's his/her post:
"If your goal is to dream up scenarios where ISU gets left out (and it clearly is in your case), I guess you can do it. But a public school of 35,000 students with AAU status, that is the largest in it's state, has a 61,000 seat football stadium, 14,000 seat basketball and strong fan support in both is not going to get left out while schools like Wake Forest, Boston College, Washington State, Duke, Northwestern, etc have a seat at the table just because of their existing conference affiliation. It just isn't going to happen. A school in ISU's position has never been relegated. It's not going to happen no matter how hard your boner for it is.
ISU would provide both the Pac and ACC with a strong academic institution, excellent basketball program, new television market, commitment to big time football (even though we suck), and rabid fanbase. If the Big 12 gets picked apart again, those conferences aren't going to sit idly by at their current size. They'll expand and ISU will be one of the few options that fit those criteria. We're in a better spot than K-State (academics, larger fanbase/market) and maybe even TCU and Baylor (academics, larger fanbase, will draw more eyeballs during down periods)."
"If your goal is to dream up scenarios where ISU gets left out (and it clearly is in your case), I guess you can do it. But a public school of 35,000 students with AAU status, that is the largest in it's state, has a 61,000 seat football stadium, 14,000 seat basketball and strong fan support in both is not going to get left out while schools like Wake Forest, Boston College, Washington State, Duke, Northwestern, etc have a seat at the table just because of their existing conference affiliation. It just isn't going to happen. A school in ISU's position has never been relegated. It's not going to happen no matter how hard your boner for it is.
ISU would provide both the Pac and ACC with a strong academic institution, excellent basketball program, new television market, commitment to big time football (even though we suck), and rabid fanbase. If the Big 12 gets picked apart again, those conferences aren't going to sit idly by at their current size. They'll expand and ISU will be one of the few options that fit those criteria. We're in a better spot than K-State (academics, larger fanbase/market) and maybe even TCU and Baylor (academics, larger fanbase, will draw more eyeballs during down periods)."
