Growing up in NW Iowa, I was a football fan of both of Iowa's large universities, Iowa State University and the University of Iowa. In the 70s they both pretty much sucked at it, although ISU was slightly better. Since the 80s, however, Iowa has become a nationally successful program while ISU has languished.
Maybe it's because I moved closer to Ames, or maybe it's my contrarian side, but during this time I found myself becoming a bit more of an ISU fan. I'm still glad for Iowa's football success and all of the attention it has brought to the state, but that success has brought with it a fan base that is not always appealing.
Iowa football fans weren't always like this. Fans sportingly appreciated the success they had in the 80s, after being dismal for so long. Unfortunately, over the years that appreciation has largely become an overconfidence, even an arrogance, that their football team is better than they are.
This overconfidence manifests itself every year during the ISU-Iowa football game. Iowa dominated this series until about 10 years ago, and since then the teams have generally traded victories. But you wouldn't know that from listening to most Iowa fans.
Case in point was this year's game, which I attended and which ISU won in 3 overtimes. Iowa fans were absolutely shocked at losing - it never crossed the minds of many of their faithful that losing was even a remote possibility. Worse still was not accepting that they were outplayed in the game. (One major exception to this was Head Coach Kirk Ferentz, a class act who said right after the game that ISU deserved to win.)
This Iowa football fan reaction is one I've see far too often with their football fans over the past 2 decades. They're like the bully who gets beat up and goes home crying, and it has made it easy to decide whom I'll root for when the Hawkeyes play the Cyclones.
C'mon now, Iowa football fans. Win with grace, but lose with dignity.
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