Drake Toll is a ******* idiot and I'm legitimately surprised a fan of a team in another conference has even heard of him. I don't listen to his show, and he covers the teams my school plays.
We're the only ranked team you've played this year. If you're annoyed that we weren't good enough 30 years ago for you to care about Iowa State in the past, sorry, I guess.
I realize you aren't stanning for the ACC, but the Big 12 had a higher Sagarin rating than the ACC this year. That's an actual fact. When you say the Big 12 sucks, you're giving an opinion. For the record, I think the two leagues are very similar, and would say that 70% of the Big 10 is the same as the ACC and Big 12. The ACC's biggest brands have more cache, but the worst teams are much worse. A fan of one league acting like there's a massive difference is operating in a space of pure opinion. We played 3 games against ranked opponents. You've played none.
Assuming you'll end up in a better conference seems like a dangerous game too. There are maybe 15-20 schools in college football that are in the top tier from a wholistic institutional standpoint. Most of them are in the SEC. 4-5 are in the Big 10. We are not one and never have been. You have been one before but I'm not sure you're one today - I suppose the potential is always there with local talent. I don't know if you felt you deserved to play a more historic brand this off-season or not. I'm not trying to assume your motives, but I'm not sure what was legitimately on the table for you that's a better match up. Would you rather play an awful Michigan team just because of the historic brand? We're considerably better than them this year.
I think I've avoided being personal, but I like, many Big 12 fans are tired of hearing about how undesirable and worthless we are just because we weren't good 100 years ago. Do you like good football or do you get caught up in amorphous concepts of prestige and history? Because if you prefer the former, you've got a pretty interesting game on your hand. If you need the latter, welp, I guess we can't do much for ya there.
I don't give a **** if Iowa State is ranked. And I don't give a **** about "ranked at the time we played them" either. You have chosen to overlook the fact that Syracuse is currently ranked. But, hey, we should respect you more "because you are currently ranked" when we eventually play you. I guess.
But I guess that stating facts about how trash the Big 12 is and how little we actually care about you was bound to bring on the stats nerd nonsense. Whatever. Knock yourself out. "Sagarin". Sure.
As for the rest of your "opinions" on what is happening with conference realignment, I just don't care. I'm "assuming" nothing. I know why Miami is desirable to the Big 10 and it's not limited to football rankings. I know where we'll be. I know where Iowa State will stay.
And I don't care if you are "tired of hearing about how undesirable and worthless your schools are", and it has nothing to do with "100 years ago". The Big 12 is just bad, and taking the undesirable Pac 12 leftovers did nothing to make the situation better. And, ****, I'm not praising the ACC taking Cal and Stanford, and before you forget, SMU basically paid the ACC to take them (which is looking like a pretty smart move on SMU's part).
I know, I know, you're going to play some "selective stats" games now. Like how many "ranked teams" you played. Here's the reality.
We lost by 5 points, on the road, to a bowl-eligible 7-5 Georgia Tech team that just took UGa to 8 overtimes. And Georgia Tech was ranked this season, and may end the year ranked. So that's not a bad loss.
And we lost by 4 points, on the road, to a bowl-eligible 9-3 Syracuse team WHO IS NOW RANKED. So that's not a bad loss either.
And the reason I mention this is because if the ONLY THING standing between Iowa State and being UNDEFEATED was 9 points on the road, you'd be pretty ****ed off too, and dissatisfied with playing the third place team in the crappy Big 12.
You want to tell me more about how all of the mighty victories by Iowa State are superior to going up to Hogtown and destroying the bowl-eligible Gators? Or going to Tampa and beating the bowl-eligible USF Bulls? Or beating 8-4 Louisville (a team that was ranked this year) or 9-3 Duke (a team that probably should be ranked)? Or coming from 25 points back, on the road, to beat a bowl-eligible Cal?
I don't look at "Sagarin", I look at who we beat, the quality of those teams, where and how it happened, and in what circumstances. I can't change the fact that 15 of the pre-season Top 25 ranking spots were taken by SEC and Big 10 teams, thus making all of THEIR wins (and losses) look like quality wins (and losses) while there are still 9-win ACC teams fighting to even be ranked.
At this point, I'm going to disengage. I realize you can't fathom the many, many reasons why most of the colleges in the rest of the country do not care about playing Iowa State, and do not find that game compelling in any way, even if it is possible for the football on the field to be moderately entertaining (and you can admit that the majority of bowl games turn out to be boring low-scoring and/or one-sided affairs, no matter how good the "football matchup" appeared to be when the teams were first paired).
To put this another way...if Miami played Notre Dame...sure, it might be a TERRIBLE game...but the fans of both schools would love it, and people would tune in to the that game all across the country. It's not about "prestige" or "100 years".
We have never played Iowa State, not in the regular season or a bowl game. I'm sorry if you equate this to us thinking we are "better than" Iowa State, but the reality is that WE DON'T CARE about Iowa State. The only Big 12 team that Miami fans MIGHT give a **** about is West Virginia, due to our shared history as major independent teams, and then Big East conference mates. Oh, and we've played Houston and Cincy a few times too, because we were all major independent teams, once upon a time. ****, we've played DETROIT MERCY more times than we've played most Big 12 teams.
Just be honest. We lost two winnable road games to bowl-eligible teams by 5 and 4 points.
We did not lose to 5-7 Kansas by 10. We did not lose to 5-7 Cincy by 10. We did not lose to TWO 6-6 teams by 5 and 21 points. WE DID NOT LOSE AT HOME TO NORTHERN ILLINOIS, which should be a disqualifying event in-and-of-itself.
If you think we should be happy after a season's worth of writers and coaches and CFP voters downgrading Miami and downgrading the ACC, and then feel oh-so-grateful to be playing Iowa State in a meaningless bowl, then that's for you to project your own value system onto. This has been a disappointing November and a disappointing CFP outcome, and whipping up some fake enthusiasm to play Iowa ******* State is not going to improve the situation.
