I think our facilities and fanbase are such that if ISU is a coaching graveyard...so are Kansas State, Nebraska, Kansas, and Iowa. Those are the closest comps to ISU now if you just look at location, local recruiting, facilities, attendance, type of school, etc. Maybe Missouri and Illinois in there too but Illinois should have better recruiting results than they have historically had.
Nebraska is starting to look like a job that has similar challenges as ISU. KU obviously does. Iowa may have lucked out with 2 effective coaches spanning nearly 4 decades but they are at an inflection point now. KSU is kind of showing there can be ups and downs with these programs without the downs being decades long. I'm hoping ISU bounces back from this season and shows the same because the close losses are different than years where most losses were laughers.
None of the six schools I mentioned are really dangerous national title contenders (none of us think we can be) or competing for the conference title year after year (I think this is the dream for our fans). KSU and Iowa are probably the closest and Iowa has been really exposed the times they got into the national spotlight type of game or even in position to win Big Ten.