FanHouse IowaStateFootball

The Big 12 North remains a ways from returning to the prominence it enjoyed when the conference first formed in the late 1990s, but if Saturday's matchup between Kansas State and Nebraska for the division title is any indication then better days are certainly on the horizon.

After years of struggles by the Kansas State Wildcats and the Nebraska Cornhuskers, which have coincided with a dip in the North's strength, the two meet Saturday in Lincoln for a winner-take-all showdown. Neither team has had quite the season it anticipated but each has won enough for the right to play for the Big 12 championship, likely against No. 2 Texas, Dec. 5.

"Certainly we've been in this position before, probably in different ways," said veteran Wildcats coach Bill Snyder, who broke out of a three-year retirement to return to the sidelines this season. "By the same token, I can't remember other than the very early years that playing against the Nebraska teams was not a great challenge and certainly key ball games were after those initial years after they beat us so soundly."

Iowa State coach Paul Rhoads says junior quarterback Austen Arnaud is ready to return to the Cyclones starting lineup this week when they take on Oklahoma State.

Arnaud, a two-year starter for the Cyclones, has been sidelined the last weeks with a bruised throwing hand. He was injured during the Oct. 17 win over Baylor.

Rhoads says Arnaud was close to returning to the lineup last Saturday at Texas A&M but that his velocity just wasn't there so he stuck with redshirt freshman Jerome Tiller for one more week.

Yesterday, the Big 12 media released their picks to win the Big 12's North and South divisions. Today, the group of writers selected their 2007 Preseason All-Big 12 Football Team. According to the press release:

"Colt McCoy (Texas) was named Preseason Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year, Reggie Smith (Oklahoma) was selected Preseason Defensive Player of the Year and Sam Keller (Nebraska) was chosen Preseason Newcomer of the Year."

It would be difficult to argue to much with the media's take on these particular honors. McCoy and Smith were dominant figures a year ago and Keller will certainly be looking to make the most of his lone year in the Big 12.

As for rest of the all-conference honorees, the South division dominates the list with 17 out of the 27 players coming from southern schools. Texas leads the way with 7 honorees, including Colt McCoy and Jamaal Charles, as well as two defensive linemen in Derek Lokey and Frank Okam. Interestingly, Oklahoma's Reggie Smith made the preseason media's squad both as a DB and as a punt returner.

Kansas actually leads the North division in honorees with three: Aqib Talib, James McClinton, and Anthony Collins. Missouri, the media's pick to win the North, has just one representative, TE Martin Rucker.

You can check out the entire 2007 Preseason All-Big 12 Football Team after the jump.

Missouri and Texas are the preseason choices to take home the Big 12 South and North Division titles this season in a recent poll of 24 media members conducted by the conference. These picks are not surprising and seem to represent the current tenor among other preseason polls and selections.

Missouri gets the nod in the North, thanks to 15 returning starters and a seasoned quarterback in Chase Daniel (pictured at right). The Tigers' offense is arguably the most talented group the team has had under Gary Pinkel. The preseason expectations will only increase the heat under Pinkel's seat should Missouri stumble early. Nebraska was picked second in the North as Bill Callahan enters his fourth season. The Huskers are looking to replace all four starters along the defensive front and must also break in a new starter at quarterback. It should be noted, however, that their new QB will likely be former ASU star Sam Keller.

Texas is the media darling in the South with 13 returning starters from its 10-win 2006 team. Colt McCoy has a season under his belt, and will only continue to improve if his offensive line can protect him. Oklahoma is picked second and could surprise folks if the QB situation in Norman finally gets settled.

While preseason polls are generally useless, Tim Griffin of the San Antonio Express-News notes that:

"The media poll has been correct in seven of the previous 11 seasons in the North and the South. It has been correct for both conferences in four of the last five seasons."

You can check out the entire poll after the jump.

To honor his first season at Iowa State, a Des Moines area bank will be producing a Gene Chizik Commemorative Coin. The coin will be used for the pregame coin toss at ISU home games, and will also go on sale to the general public later this month.

"Jacquie Holm-Smith, spokeswoman for Community State Bank, says they worked with Cyclone Sports Properties which holds the multi-media rights for ISU athletics on the idea. She says two versions of the coin will be available. One is antique gold, while the other version has red inlaid accents around the border.

Holm-Smith says it's a way to mark the new season with a new coaching staff, and celebrate the football team as a whole. The coin goes on sale July 16th and will sell for $15. It will be used for the first time on August 30th when the Cyclones open the season against Kent State."

The university and the surrounding communities really seem to be behind Chizik's inaugural season with the Cyclones. A commemorative coin, however, seems to fall somewhere between a bobblehead and those annoying thundersticks as far as fan promotions go. In addition, $15.00 seems awfully stiff for an otherwise worthless hunk of metal. You can catch a glimpse of the Chizik coin in PDF form here.

It's the offseason, this is news.

Count Iowa State among the handful of teams to wear throwbacks this upcoming college football season. The Cyclones will don some nifty threads in commemoration of 1)the 1977 Peach Bowl team and 2)the University's sesquicentennial. It's a one-shot deal set for September 15 against the in-state rival Iowa Hawkeyes.

Additionally, Iowa State will wear new gold pants for both home and away games.

Oh, and just so you know, the Iowa State athletics department website is an assault on the eyes. I'm down with the school colors but wow.

(Via: Cyclone Sports Journal)

After faculty petitions and intense debate, the Iowa State football program will now be allowed a volunteer religious adviser. First year head coach Gene Chizik had originally asked for a chaplain position that would be funded through private donations. The approved position, however, will now be named "life skills assistant," which seems like semantic sleight of hand, especially considering its apparent duties.

"We have taken serious the faith needs of Iowa State student-athletes, but also have worked hard to protect the interests of student-athletes of different faiths and those with no faith," said Tim Day, chairman of the athletic council and professor of biomedical sciences.

From a football perspective the Cyclones may rely heavily on their "life skills assistant" in 2007. They will be breaking in a new coach and have an extremely difficult conference schedule. Check out this stretch in particular:


Sept 15th Iowa

Sept 22nd @Toledo

Sept 29th @ Nebraska

Oct 6 @ Texas Tech

Oct 13th Texas

Oct 20th Oklahoma

Oct 27th @ Missouri


With a new religious advisor in place it looks like finding God might be easier than finding wins this season in Ames.

The ever-changing world of Big 12 television contracts just got a little crazier. The conference announced on Wednesday that FSN (Fox Sports Net) has agreed to sublicense five Big 12 games to VERSUS. Yes, VERSUS. Bring on the sad clown.

"The enhanced national exposure for Big 12 football on VERSUS is an asset," Big 12 Commissioner Kevin Weiberg said. "With games on ABC, FSN, ESPN and now VERSUS we have significantly expanded the reach of Big 12 football. We are pleased with this new agreement and appreciate the efforts of our partner FSN in bringing this opportunity to us."

Clearly Kevin Weiberg and I have different opinions on the meaning of the word "exposure." Hasn't he seen the ratings for the NHL? As this L.A. Times article notes:

"The network [VERSUS] is in 72 million television households, about 20 million fewer than ESPN or ESPN2."

I'm not even joking when I tell you that I have no idea if I actually get VERSUS. I know I have about a dozen FSN channels, another that shows auto racing and its off-shoots 24 hours a day, and numerous Spanish language networks. But VERSUS? Not so sure.

Unfortunately, it looks like I'll be scrambling through my on-screen cable guide come this fall. The first game the network will televise has already been announced as the September 15th Iowa State - Iowa game will be shown at 12:30 p.m. CST.

With just 90 days separating us from the opening week of the season it's time to start looking ahead. Toward that end the FanHouse NCAA football crew is bringing you the games you won't want to miss during the first week of the college football season.

Like most conferences, the opening of the Big 12 schedule is not without its share of creampuffs and paycheck-hungry directional schools. But there are three match-ups against BCS conference teams on the week one slate. Of those games, the most intriguing looks to be Oklahoma State at Georgia.

The Bulldogs coming off a 9-4 season in 2006 and are a consensus Top 20 team in the early preseason polls (Lindy's - #17, Athlon's - #16, Phil Steele - #11). They will be looking for sophomore quarterback Matt "the kegmaster" Stafford to build on his successful freshman campaign. With Stafford's game experience and fewer turnovers, the offense should be improved. Because Georgia consistently brings in Top 10 recruiting classes, they should certainly be more talented than the Cowboys from top-to-bottom. The biggest question mark will be how well the Bulldogs' inexperienced front seven - with six new starters - can stand up to OSU's offensive fire power.

Oklahoma State finished 7-6 in 2006, but went just 1-3 against Top 25 competition. They seemed poised, however, to use T. Boone Pickens' deep pockets to elevate themselves to the level of the Big 12's elite. There is no question that the Cowboys will score points. They finished 16th nationally in total offense and 7th in scoring offense in a year ago. They also return a trio of big-time playmakers in quarterback Bobby Reid, running back Dantrell Savage, and apparent Heisman hopeful Adarius Bowman at wide receiver. Look for Oklahoma State to give Georgia a game if their defense improves under new defensive coordinator Tim Beckham. Beckham's biggest job will be ensuring that the Cowboys can keep teams out of the endzone after OSU surrendered 28 or more points eight times in 2006.

During his days as head coach of Kansas State, Bill Snyder garnered quite a reputation for the scheduling of cupcakes. Sweet, delicious cupcakes, like Western Kentucky, Louisiana-Monroe and McNeese State. To honor the legacy of Coach Snyder, we bring you the FanHouse "Bill Snyder Award Honoring Excellence in the Scheduling of Creampuffs and Patsies".

Given that Bill Snyder himself once roamed Big 12 sidelines it's not surprising that there are several worthy nominees for this award within the conference. Perennial conference doormat Baylor appears to be mimicking Snyder's approach to program building with a non-conference slate that includes three Texas schools in TCU, Rice and Texas State. The Bears also travel to Buffalo. Wow, that's quite the journey to find a winnable early season game!

Iowa State will also ease new coach Gene Chizik into the Big 12, with non-conference foes Kent State, Northern Iowa, Toledo and instate rival Iowa. Only two games against other schools from the vast state of Iowa? What, was Buena Vista University unavailable for an early season tilt?

But, ultimately these two schedules pale in comparison to the non-conference fodder of the Kansas Jayhawks. The Jayhawks open their season with games against powerhouse teams Central Michigan, Southeastern Louisiana, Toledo and Florida International. Man, Mark Mangino must be hungry for another bowl appearance. Heh, hungry. Another Mangino fat joke! But seriously that schedule is just awful and all four games will also be played at home. That means the Jayhawks won't leave the confines of Lawrence until a long, arduous October 6th trip to Manhattan, Kansas to face KSU. Of the four schools on KU's non-conference slate only Central Michigan played in a bowl in 2006 (the Motor City Bowl counts right?). Moreover, Southeastern Louisiana went just 2-9 last season. That's 2-9 in Division I-AA folks. Ouch.

So congratulations to the Kansas Jayhawks, as you are proud Big 12recipients of the "Bill Snyder Award Honoring Excellence in the Scheduling of Creampuffs and Patsies". Enjoy your complementary cupcakes. You've earned them.