These past 10 days or so have been really tough on Cyclone fans. This has been a really tough story to really talk about not only because of the potentially grim future, but also because the story is so fluid, and details keep changing.

Here's what I've learned from the Big 12 with all of this realignment craziness going on:

• Some college football fans up to this point have been in denial.  I've seen a lot of things posted online on various sites like "I can't believe college football is all about the money", when they're reacting to this movement. Not trying to talk down to anyone, but all this has ever been about in my lifetime is about money. It's why there were 34 bowl games last year. Why so many conferences have championship games. Why teams have to play at least 12 games a year. Why TV networks pay billions of dollars to televise games. It's why these coaches are multimillionaires. It's a business, and being run like one. Nothing has changed. It's always been this way. The difference between now and then is, that these schools are being more honest about this, and also they are seeing that they aren't realizing their potential when it comes to revenue.
  
• Not being a fan of a conference is the way to go. Honestly, I have never been a fan of conferences anyways, but after seeing how this has all gone down, why would anybody? What's the point of rooting for a team in your conference, when down the road they could very well bail? I've talked about this before, but the reason why I've never been a conference guy, is because I have a hard time rooting for a team that we're trying to beat in the standings in a bowl game or in the NCAA tournament. In this current situation, I'm rooting for the Big 12 to stay together, because it's the best situation for ISU, but that doesn't mean I like the Big 12, or will root for Big 12 teams in competitions. I apply a lot of the same towards our coaches as well. I'll root for them when they're here (while I still have faith), but I realize if a better situation comes, they could leave at the drop of a hat, and have little-to-no loyalty towards ISU.
  

This week has the potential to be one of the biggest in the history of ISU athletics. We are going to know what's going to happen with the conference, and a majority of the teams, probably later today or early on Tuesday.

At this point, I've played out all of the scenarios for ISU. I think we know the best case and worst case by now. Everyone has been breaking it down, so I won't rehash it here. I'm just reserved, because it's too damn tiring to spaz out and worry. I did all of my freaking out over a month ago on here. Whatever happens, happens. We're awesome fans that support these programs more than what they deserve at times (in my opinion). No reason to get down on ourselves too much. It's just one of those crap situations where us fans have the most to lose in this situation, but none of this is our fault. Just gotta keep our heads up, and get our drink-on when word comes on our future.