Brothers In Arms » Brats & Beer

December 8, 2005
posted under: Iowa State football

My brother and I are quite different in many ways. He lives back home in Iowa, I live here in Texas. He is carefree and single, I am married (happily, I might add). He is “between jobs,” I have my dignity wrung from my soul on a daily basis by corporate America. But when it comes to sports, we are cut from the same cloth: we both bleed Green and Gold, we both cheer on the Cyclones, and we both hate the University of Iowa Hawkeyes. With that, I give you part of an e-mail he sent me this week.

So after a humiliating afternoon of Packer football, I tune in to see what the college bowl selections will be. Everyone knows who will be in the Rose Bowl, so no shocker there. Most Iowa sports columnists were picking the ‘Clones to be in Houston for the EV1 Houston Bowl and the Hawkeyes in San Antonio for the Alamo Bowl. In fact some travel agencies were running ads in the Sunday paper about trips to San Antonio for the game.

But I was shocked to find that the Hawks, the darlings of the state of Iowa, were not going to the Alamo but to the Outback Bowl, a more prestigious bowl with a bigger payout. Meanwhile, the Cyclones, a great team (albeit running out of steam at the end of the season), gets passed up. This is the team that beat Colorado and Texas A&M like they owed ISU money. Sure the Hawkeyes won their share of games, but nothing stellar or noteworthy. I’m sure that the Outback people looked at the money potential coming from Iowa and picked them over 7-4 teams like Iowa State or Michigan but come on, they will only use the $2.8 million to bail their players out of jail and finance their stadium construction to better resemble Camp Randall.

It’s time for these bowl committees to wake up realize Iowa State has a team with the potential to dazzle on bowls held after the New Year. Cyclones fans could easily fill seats at Raymond James Stadium and bring lots of money into the Tampa area. Most Hawkeye fans will probably just spend game time in jail or try and set the Buccaneer’s pirate boat on fire. Doesn’t character count for anything nowadays?

I guess I should be fortunate that we are actually going to a bowl unlike the many years before Dan McCarney. And at least we aren’t going to the Motor City Bowl in Detroit, even though I would like to see ISU scrimmage against the Lions.

Couldn’t have said it better myself.