Peterson: Cleaning out old notebooks a week before Iowa State football media day
Cleaning out the summer notebooks before starting anew with a 2023 football season that promises to be more intriguing than any other I can recall. This throwaway (or preservation) process is an annual rite for most everyone in this business. One more scan through the old before cracking open the new.
Four new teams in the Big 12 Conference.
Roll call just to see which players are in and which ones are out for the first couple games. Assuming the gambling police have finally made their decisions.
No more equitable scheduling in which everyone plays everyone.
With Iowa State’s annual media day scheduled for Aug. 4, it’s time for one last look before putting used-up notebooks on the pile of years gone by.
Football preseason predictions ... who’s in, who’s out?
Which Cyclones position groups will suffer the most against Northern Iowa in the Sept. 2 season opener at Jack Trice Stadium and against Iowa (with the same roster mystery) in Ames on Sept. 9?
The ongoing gambling investigation will catch some players. Some could miss games. Some could miss more games than others. We’ve all heard alleged names. Officially, no one has commented on the open investigation.
More: Peterson: Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark danced around key issues like a politician
We’ll do our last-minute best at picking where the Cyclones finish in this new 14-team conference. Let’s assume the coaches know who’s been accused, and that they’ve been working extra hard preparing backups. It’s not like this situation just came to their attention.
Heck, at some positions, outcomes could end up being one of those "addition by subtraction" things, meaning the perceived starters weren’t as good as the No. 2 guys, anyhow.
Coach Prime in the Big 12
That’d be cool, Colorado returning to the Big 12. Deion Sanders coaching the Buffs is a bonus for fans, wherever the school lands.
One day Colorado is leaving the Pac-12. The next day Colorado and the Pac-12 are solid. Speculation like this always happens during the slow-news summer. It's like guessing where head coaches will be coaching next. It's click bait.
No trip to Allen Fieldhouse. Dumb.
The most surprising aspect of the new Big 12 men’s basketball schedule is that the Cyclones won’t be playing at Kansas next season. The Jayhawks will play in Ames. The Cyclones won’t be playing in Lawrence. That’s ludicrous. That's wrong.
It’s a scheduling quirk that happens when 14-team conferences play 18 games during a conference season. But I never figured the league would drop an always-anticipated game featuring two geographically close opponents with a rich series history.
As the Des Moines Register’s Travis Hines pointed out, this will be the first time the Cyclones won’t play at Kansas since 1921.
More: For the first time since 1921, Iowa State men's basketball won't be visiting Kansas
Coach T.J. Otzelberger probably doesn’t mind, considering the crowd and atmosphere at Allen Fieldhouse are unmatched among anyone Iowa State regularly plays. But college basketball fans are cheated. This is usually an action-filled, entertaining rivalry game.
Iowa State playing home-and-home against BYU, Houston, Kansas State, Oklahoma and TCU but not against Kansas makes no sense.
Oh well. At least Houston coach Kelvin Sampson will return to Hilton Coliseum, where he brought his Oklahoma teams from 1994 to 2006. And Bill Self will bring his Jayhawks to Ames.
Back-to-back Hilton opponents? That’ll be the first thing I look for when the Big 12 releases dates, times and TV networks.
Matt Campbell and NIL and the portal
Like most of us, Iowa State football coach Matt Campbell wants someone, even if it ends up being the feds, to step in and make some Name, Image and Likeness legislation that pertains to everyone.
“You’d like just uniformity a little bit probably from a holistic standpoint,” he said during a breakout session at Big 12 Media Days. “It’s such a tough question and such a unique time. When NIL and one-time transfer hit at the same time, it changed the landscape of college football. I think uniformity would be good for both of those areas.”
Iowa State 7-footers
For the first time since Georgios Tsalmpouris in 2014, Iowa State basketball will have a 7-footer, now that J.T. Rock’s reclassification is official.
Always ready with the trivia, Ryan Workman of the Cyclones' media relations department quickly provided me with a list when I asked for names of previous 7-footers. Players listed in alphabetical order:
Chris Alexander, 7-foot-1 (2002-03)
Joe Ashley, 7-0 (1979-80)
Brad Dudek, 7-1 (1983-85)
Tom O’Connor, 7-0 (1971-73)
Tyler Peterson, 7-0 (1995-96)
Andrew Skoglund, 7-1 (2000-04)
Georgios Tsalmpouris, 7-1 (2014-15)
Yormark and recruiting
It was wonderful, the way Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark defended the conference’s recruiting integrity, when asked what happens when the two defectors (Texas and Oklahoma) start swimming with SEC sharks.
More: Cyclone Insider Podcast: Peterson and Hines talk Day 2 from Big 12 media days
When someone asked which team would carry the conference’s recruiting banner, he quickly responded with this zinger:
"I don't think (Texas and Oklahoma) carried the conference in recruiting. They haven't been in our championship game the past couple years. All the other schools have done an incredible job, so I’m not sure they’ve carried recruiting for this conference. Look at TCU’s run last year. Everyone’s in a great place.”
Shots fired.
Past few years? TCU, last season, was the first Big 12 team to play in the championship game since the CFP started in 2015.
Tennis is rockin' it
Yes, Iowa State women’s tennis remains on the national radar.
Shortly after coach Boomer Saia’s departure to Clemson, new coach Jaron Maestas looks to be doing just fine.
The new coach has been a hit on the recruiting trail, first with five-time Division II All-American Isabella Dunlap transferring from Central Oklahoma, where she played for Maestas.
The Cyclones added Caroline Nicholls, the nation’s 29th-ranked high school recruit from Aventura, Florida.
That’s called making an eye-opening first impression.
Iowa State columnist Randy Peterson is in his 51st year writing sports for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at rpeterson@dmreg.com, and on Twitter @RandyPete
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Cleaning out old notebooks ahead of Iowa State football media day
