I came here to post this exact second paragraph.
This is the only solution. Every conference has bad officials, and specifically being employed by a conference creates this.
It’s utterly endemic in the entire sport. There need to be full time well compensated officials that work for some central body - not a conference. That way there’s no “school X needs to be kept unbeaten” bullshit.
That said, he’s Harlan is being a bitch. Every conference has trash officials. The P12 was just as bad as the Big 12.
Yes. Of course.
We just want to be entertained and the Campbell era has delivered that in spades. We don’t have high expectations at all in football and likely never will.
A couple reasons Campbell hasn’t left:
1) He would suck at a blue blood and he knows it. If he takes the bigger job, he’s on his ass in 3 years. He has a lifetime contract in Ames, and he’s still making generational wealth. His strength is motivating and developing raw but talented guys. He can’t relate to the higher end athletes, and he’s kind of a shitty in-game coach.
2) He has complete control of this program. The AD lets him do as he pleases. He’s stripped so much traditional coach expectations from this job.
3) He’s a private guy who hates glad handing BMDs and being in a microscope. He’s a huge celebrity in Ames, but people leave him alone. He could take his wife out for supper tonight and no one is going to bother him about that abortion of a football game.
4) His wife and kids love it here. Allegedly his wife and a childhood friend turned lawyer serve as his agent(s).
5) Small expectations. He’s a god for winning 8 games/year. He’s not getting fired for going 4-8.
TLDR; he makes a shit load of money to do a job he loves, in a place his family loves, where there is very little pressure on him.
Spending a lot of time in all of those places (which I have).
Indiana is the outlier. Rust Belt. Lot of Southern feel to it - Evangelicals and such. College hoops is way bigger than college football. Notre Dame kinda doesn't count. Lot of the state is forested and rugged with more quarrying, mining, etc in places (although the NW part looks like the western Midwest). Eastern time zone. Has pro sports and a majorish city.
The other 3 are really fucking similar. Lots of Germans. Lots of Catholics. Row crop ag. Very few trees. Nebraska has more ranching because you can't grow anything in the Sand Hills. Both college football and basketball are big deals. Iowa's been more politically moderate over the years, somewhat aligning with it's neighbors to the north and east, but that shifted in '14 (and is hopefully shifting back). KS and NE both seem to be moderating some too. None of them have pro sports (although KS has the Chiefs and Royals next door).
It definitely was. Obama won the Driftless Area (and our neighboring WI and MN counties too) both times.
The farm crisis in the 80's made a lot of farmers hate Reagan and Republicans. These were the guys my grandpa's age (my grandpa is a 90 year old Trump loathing yellow dog Democrat). Their sons all did really well farming and became Republicans as a result (my old man being a rare exception). Most of the old Carter Democrat farmers have died out, and I think that was a part of Trump's rise as Boomer and old Gen X rural guys became hardcore Trumpers.
I also think that low income/low education white people (IE white trash - I can say it because I live amongst them) didn't care about politics before Trump, and they turned out in a big way. They're losing interest again as he's losing steam, and his win never really changed their lives. Combine that with women overwhelmingly flipping to Harris and I can see how Iowa is making this political shift with different demographics than we saw in the past.