Hlas: Cyclones' support might run deep vs. Texas

College football's Game of the Week is Nebraska-Wisconsin, but the Team of the Week could be Iowa State.

The Cyclones will try to beat Texas for themselves, of course, but they'll probably make a lot of new fans if they upset the Longhorns at Jack Trice Stadium.

The pleasure that would be taken if little Iowa State derails big, bad Texas for a second-straight season would be immense at many dots on the sport's map. You think they wouldn't be giggling with delight at Texas A&M, which chose to move to the Southeastern Conference than continue its association with Texas?

You think Kansas and Kansas State and Baylor, with their conferences fates twisting in the winds not long ago along with Iowa State's, wouldn't love it if Texas got more of the comeuppance it endured last year in going 5-7?

You think the Pac-12, which would have Texas and three more Big 12 schools from the Southwest as members right now had Texas accepted the then-Pac-10's revenue-sharing model for television, have any great love for the Longhorns?

You think some Big East members might not get a kick out of the Longhorns getting taken down a peg? Had Texas been more of a Big 12 team-player, there wouldn't have been such paranoia across major-college football about the future of conference alignments, and maybe Pittsburgh and Syracuse wouldn't have leaped to the ACC.

You know Nebraskans will giggle if Iowa State gets the better of Texas again. Sick of Austin being the Big 12's epicenter, Nebraska got out when the getting was at its best. Now it's part of the Big Ten and is one-half of quite the wingding in Madison tonight.

The Cornhuskers wouldn't have been open to switching leagues, in all likelihood, if the Longhorns hadn't been calling as many shots as they always have in the Big 12. But that's now Texas rolls, which is why the Big 12 still seems as shaky as Wisconsin's Camp Randall Stadium when “Jump Around” is played between the third and fourth quarters.

Nebraska fans have enough to concern themselves with Saturday evening. But if their longtime friends from Ames knock off Texas, a lot of Huskers might honk their horns in salute Sunday as they drive through central Iowa on their way home from Madison.

All that said, this game obviously means a whole lot more to Iowa State than trying to make a bunch of out-of-staters sport cruel grins at the Longhorns. A 4-0 Cyclones team would vault into the Top 25 and be showered with positive national attention.

Texas' competition to date is no better than Iowa State's, but the 3-0 Longhorns are ranked 17th. This comment Texas' Mack Brown made Monday on the Big 12 coaches' teleconference tells you all you need to know about the Horns' state of mind:

“It's really important that we're in the Top 25. We'd like to get back to the Top 10, and then preferably, obviously, in the Top 5 because that's where we feel like we should be. Because this program and these fans deserve that.”

Now, I'm pulling out one quote from 15 minutes, and Brown said a lot of highly complimentary things about Iowa State, including his belief ISU should be ranked going into this game. But how many coaches - and how many fan-bases - say the Top 5 should be their destination because their program and their fans deserve it?

Sure, you have a humongous athletic budget. Sure, you now have your own television network that ESPN is giving you $300 million to operate over the next 15 years. Sure, you never have to leave your own state to stock your football program with elite players.

But you deserve to be in the Top 5? No, you need to explain how you could have ever had a losing season like the last one.

Iowa State talks about no such perceived birthrights. It doesn't live in Texas' gated community. It's trying to get by from month to month, pay the bills, maintain a decent standard of living, and hope outside forces don't interfere with that.

But if the Cyclones win Saturday, they'll make their own statement. They'll say you can fight City Hall after all. You can tilt at windmills and not be a dreamer. You can win two in a row against big, bad Bevo with far fewer dollars and a much-smaller population base if you have the right players and coaches.

Admittedly, it's easy and cheap to make any sporting event sound like a good-vs.-evil event. If not for Texas' drawing power, Iowa State wouldn't have its national platform tonight on FX.

If you're Texas, you can say you've worked hard to build everything you have, you haven't been a rogue program, and you're a big reason the Big 12 negotiated a $1.1 billion, 13-year TV deal with Fox Sports Media Group last spring. Assuming the Big 12 does stay together, that will put a lot of cash in Iowa State's coffers.

However, great assets Nebraska and Texas A&M didn't leave the Big 12 because of Iowa State, and neither will Missouri if it makes a move to the SEC.

The eyes of Texas are on the Longhorns Saturday night. But a lot of eyes in other places might get watery with joy if the Cyclones mess with Texas.