Want my unabashed opinion? I think Colin Cowherd is an absolute d-bag. He's an elitist who thinks that the 20+ teams in any given league (perhaps except for the NFL) exist to serve as "beating fodder" for teams that reside in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco. He's the kind of guy that looks down at a school like ISU because we're a small school in flyover country that has had historically little to no success in name the relevant sport, and as such we never should have success and should always bow down to the Nebraskas, Oklahomas, Texases, and Iowas on our schedule. However, he says one thing that absolutely resonates with me - "WHY SHOULD someone cheer for a team that refuses to do what it takes to win? How can you possibly elicit change from the powers-that-be if they know that you're going to show up and give them your hard-earned money no matter what product they put on the field?"
WHY SHOULD our fan base measure one's fandom by how willing they'll sit through losing? "You're not a true ISU fan unless you're willing to sit through years of losing on the off chance that once every five years we might make it to some low-tier bowl game." It's asinine - we HAVE to be the only fan base in America that does that. Quite honestly, if I were old enough to be an ISU fan in the 1970s, ISU probably would have lost me in the 1980s and 1990s as there was NO REASONABLE ATTEMPT made to even try to win with any kind of consistency, at least not until Gene Smith and Dan McCarney came along. "We don't need to win at football - we've sucked in the past and been just fine anyway." "We don't need better facilities - the ones we have are just fine, and we're not winning anyway." Meanwhile everyone else tries to improve and to this day we're STILL behind the eight ball.
It's really funny, though - if every school that never succeeded took your advice, you know, the one that says that "why should we have lofty expectations? We've never succeeded before, why should we expect to do so now?" Virginia Tech, Kansas State, Miami, Florida State, and Iowa would have never had the success stories that they have. Prior to Beamer, and Snyder, VT and K-State were nothing in college football. Both Iowa and Florida State went through multiple decades of irrelevance before Fry and Bowden showed up. And you must have thought it was ridiculous that Schnellenburger claimed he would bring Miami a national title within 5 years, simply because they had never done it before.
But yeah - ISU fans have no business expecting more success than a minor bowl game once every 4 or 5 years simply because this school "hasn't done it before"
WHY SHOULD our fan base measure one's fandom by how willing they'll sit through losing? "You're not a true ISU fan unless you're willing to sit through years of losing on the off chance that once every five years we might make it to some low-tier bowl game." It's asinine - we HAVE to be the only fan base in America that does that. Quite honestly, if I were old enough to be an ISU fan in the 1970s, ISU probably would have lost me in the 1980s and 1990s as there was NO REASONABLE ATTEMPT made to even try to win with any kind of consistency, at least not until Gene Smith and Dan McCarney came along. "We don't need to win at football - we've sucked in the past and been just fine anyway." "We don't need better facilities - the ones we have are just fine, and we're not winning anyway." Meanwhile everyone else tries to improve and to this day we're STILL behind the eight ball.
It's really funny, though - if every school that never succeeded took your advice, you know, the one that says that "why should we have lofty expectations? We've never succeeded before, why should we expect to do so now?" Virginia Tech, Kansas State, Miami, Florida State, and Iowa would have never had the success stories that they have. Prior to Beamer, and Snyder, VT and K-State were nothing in college football. Both Iowa and Florida State went through multiple decades of irrelevance before Fry and Bowden showed up. And you must have thought it was ridiculous that Schnellenburger claimed he would bring Miami a national title within 5 years, simply because they had never done it before.
But yeah - ISU fans have no business expecting more success than a minor bowl game once every 4 or 5 years simply because this school "hasn't done it before"
