Let me start off with a little bit of background information about myself. I was born and raised in Iowa and grew up a die-hard Cyclone fan. I've had a subscription to this site since my high school days. Or at least the part of high school I attended. I was a 4.0 student and quit going to school. Don't judge; 16 year-olds don't always make the best choices, especially when their "parents" are the social workers who come by the shelter once a week. Hell, I had already quit attending class by the time I took the ACT, and I ended up saying screw it and leaving early so I could listen to the Cyclones on the radio. Thankfully, we ended a three game losing streak in football and beat up on Okie State on the way to a 7-5 season and a second consecutive failure at winning the Big 12 North.
Unlike perhaps the majority on here, I never attended ISU. I'm one of the many young adults who have left Iowa, as many others in my generation have. I ended up getting a high school equivalency and an AA, and I'm planning to enroll at the University of Washington in January to major in linguistics (provided my application is accepted and I can afford to live in Seattle). In spite of not attending ISU like I had dreamed of when I was a kid, I have continued to be a big Cyclone fan and will always care about them to some degree. You can't change who you love.
The question that pops up over and over again with increasingly intensity, however, is the one I posted in the title of this thread. Why should I care so much that I try to watch every game? Why should I invest money in an organization that will always be three steps behind the competition barring a massive demographic change, a drastic change in the economic model of collegiate sports (especially in the Big 12), or finding a T. Boone Pickens-style sugar daddy? Is that not simply throwing away money?
Fred Hoiberg is/was a once in a lifetime perfect fit for ISU basketball, much like Cael Sanderson was for ISU wrestling. Hoiberg has Ames and ISU roots. He's popular with young people. He's popular with the media. He's popular with the pros. Had Hoiberg stayed at ISU, I truly believe we had the potential to become a conference powerhouse. He could have been our Coach K. With Hoiberg gone, we won't suddenly go back to 12-16 seasons, but we very likely aren't going to be contending for the conference title every year either. We will simply be exactly who we are: a slightly better than middle-of-the-road basketball program that occasionally makes a run. Hoiberg isn't staying long enough to change that reality, and in football, there may not be any coach that can elevate our position.
I don't fault Fred for leaving. He is his own person with his own goals in life. He's an excellent basketball coach, and he wants to coach at the highest level. He will also make a lot more money doing so. I'm happy for him. But what taste does this situation leave in my mouth? Not even our biggest Cyclone heroes love and care about ISU enough to want to stay a part of it, so why should we? In the end, all it does is let you down and provide another reminder that life isn't fair.
Unlike perhaps the majority on here, I never attended ISU. I'm one of the many young adults who have left Iowa, as many others in my generation have. I ended up getting a high school equivalency and an AA, and I'm planning to enroll at the University of Washington in January to major in linguistics (provided my application is accepted and I can afford to live in Seattle). In spite of not attending ISU like I had dreamed of when I was a kid, I have continued to be a big Cyclone fan and will always care about them to some degree. You can't change who you love.
The question that pops up over and over again with increasingly intensity, however, is the one I posted in the title of this thread. Why should I care so much that I try to watch every game? Why should I invest money in an organization that will always be three steps behind the competition barring a massive demographic change, a drastic change in the economic model of collegiate sports (especially in the Big 12), or finding a T. Boone Pickens-style sugar daddy? Is that not simply throwing away money?
Fred Hoiberg is/was a once in a lifetime perfect fit for ISU basketball, much like Cael Sanderson was for ISU wrestling. Hoiberg has Ames and ISU roots. He's popular with young people. He's popular with the media. He's popular with the pros. Had Hoiberg stayed at ISU, I truly believe we had the potential to become a conference powerhouse. He could have been our Coach K. With Hoiberg gone, we won't suddenly go back to 12-16 seasons, but we very likely aren't going to be contending for the conference title every year either. We will simply be exactly who we are: a slightly better than middle-of-the-road basketball program that occasionally makes a run. Hoiberg isn't staying long enough to change that reality, and in football, there may not be any coach that can elevate our position.
I don't fault Fred for leaving. He is his own person with his own goals in life. He's an excellent basketball coach, and he wants to coach at the highest level. He will also make a lot more money doing so. I'm happy for him. But what taste does this situation leave in my mouth? Not even our biggest Cyclone heroes love and care about ISU enough to want to stay a part of it, so why should we? In the end, all it does is let you down and provide another reminder that life isn't fair.
