Iowa football: It’s now time to cheer for the Iowa State Cyclones

It is officially a Hawkeye state after the Iowa football team defeated ISU Saturday evening, but now it’s time to cheer for our little brother, the Clones.

I realize this might be a pretty divisive article, but that’s alright, but I stand by my belief that now that the Iowa football team has defeated the Iowa State Cyclones, we should be rooting for Iowa State, for the most part, from here on out.

First, and foremost, the better Iowa State does, the better the Iowa football team looks. And that does matter when the College Football Playoff committee does their rankings. For those of you clamoring to play Alabama or Georgia (which both are really dumb ideas in my opinion), this is our chance to have a meaningful non-conference game. For as much complaining as there is about the perceived weakness of Iowa State historically (which is mostly true until now), beating them this year could be considered a marquee non-conference win.

Say what you want about the tight victory over Northern Iowa, but the Iowa football team also had a close call against a Panthers team a decade ago, and some consider that team to be one of the best in the modern era of Iowa football.

The Big 12 may be a bit down, but that also means its winnable. As of right now, the Cyclones have three ranked teams on their schedule (#25 TCU, @ #5 Oklahoma, and #12 Texas). Winning two of those three games will be huge for Iowa State, and in turn, good for the Iowa football team.

Second, long-term speaking, the better the national perception of Iowa State is, the better this CyHawk rivalry looks on paper for the Iowa football team each year. It goes directly to the point above. Even if Iowa State isn’t as talented, if they are perceived to be a decent team nationally, it looks better. Yes, I understand that the better Iowa State is, the more competition there is to recruit in-state guys, but if that’s your only argument here then you either don’t have faith in the Iowa football team’s recruiting abilities and don’t completely understand the college football recruiting process.

I won’t sit here and say I’ve been through the college football process, but I do understand a bit about it in my conversations with former Iowa football players on Locked On Hawkeyes. Let’s break the recruiting differences down though and then move on to the final point:

1. Each school has a different recruiting methodology targeting different kids. Not every in-state kid is targeted by each school.
2. A lot of kids from the state of Iowa grow up loving one of these two programs. No matter what, whichever program their family allegiances lie, that program has the upper hand.
3. Who the heck cares? The Iowa football team has a very unique and particular approach to recruiting. They’ve lost kids because of it (i.e. Eno Benjamin) and they’ve won kids because of it (i.e. Deuce Hogan). They’ve lost in-state kids to Iowa State (i.e. Allan Lazard) and they’ve lost in-state kids to powerhouse schools like Alabama (i.e. Ross Pierschbacher).

Now on to point number three, and this one mostly stands for just the folks in the state of Iowa. Let’s face reality. If you aren’t from the state of Iowa, you probably make fun of the state of Iowa, unless you’re from North Dakota or Wyoming. We have no pro sports teams either. It’s just college sports. And yes, I want Iowa State to lose to Iowa every single team, but outside of that, I just don’t understand the hatred for the other major in-state school.

I want the Iowa athletic programs to do great, but right behind that, I want all athletic programs in the state to do great. Let’s go Drake! Let’s go UNI! Let’s go ISU! Let’s go Iowa!

I’ve got a specific pecking order of the four, but on a national scale, you better believe I want the state to have success. And if you think that doesn’t make me worthy of being an Iowa fan then so be it.

At the end of the day though, going forward, we should be rooting for Iowa State. It will help the Iowa football team and it’s just good for the state.