I just spent much of the morning reading message board posts from Iowa and ISU fans related to this year's game.
While the message boards are for the passionate, and if that was your lone exposure to rivalry week you'd think things were ready to boil over, the tenor about Central Iowa isn't as big as it was in 2005. It's not the same as it was in 2006. Since those years, I think the lead up to the game and the fervor about town has diminished an I am not sure why.
Perhaps it's because Deace left afternoon sports talk in 2006, and he certainly had a role in firing up both Iowa and Iowa State fans; Iowa fans because he ticked them off, ISU fans because he was carrying the flag for them when few in sports talk radio in the market had done so before he arrived on the scene.
He has said publicly that the Iowa-ISU rivalry, or rather, ISU making it a rivalry, which coincided with his start in sports talk radio, helped push along his career.
While the game has given me my share of off the field headaches, it's not been bad. No matter the street you live on in Des Moines or the surrounding cities, you will see some Iowa flags and some ISU flags...so we're neighbors. We work together. We go to church together. We are all Iowans, and once the game is over, we go back to being all of those things. The 'nasty factor' of this rivalry pales in comparison to Missouri-Kansas, Michigan-Ohio State or some of the other 'big ones' around college football.
I am not saying that to belittle the rivalry, I am just saying that it's pretty unique, in that it's two schools from different BCS conferences in the same small state that still places a lot of value in being a good neighbor and helping out friends in need.
No, that doesn't make as many headlines and it's why the Iowa-ISU game will likely never garner much national attention. But that's OK, at least to me. Because I live, work and worship here. I don't want to be angry with my neighbor because he cheers for another team. It's easier for those other schools and rivalries to stoke the flames of hate year round because they only get together once a year...we get together every day.
Here's to a good game, where both sides play their best and may the best team win...and if the best team doesn't win, we know that it will be because Iowa beat itself. - Jon
© 2012
