Iowa State football coach 'grateful' Big 12 likely to survive

AMES - Iowa State football coach Paul Rhoads said Wednesday he's "grateful" it appears the Big 12 will continue to function as an athletic conference.

"I'm happy with the direction it looks like our league is going to head and what that means to our program certainly," Rhoads said after his team's practice. "We'll all be more relieved when it's all said and done and ink is dry wherever things are going to go with the discussions that are going to take place here in the near future. But right now it's certainly a positive sign."

Tuesday night, Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott announced the league declined further expansion and will not take Big 12 powers Texas and Oklahoma, along with Oklahoma State and Texas Tech. Officials from those schools announced Wednesday they want to work out the issues that has turned the Big 12 upside down with reports of an imminent collapse. 

Iowa State athletics officials have declined comment until the situation is resolved.

Rhoads said he ignored the multiple media reports that had schools potentially joining other conferences.

"I paid attention to it zero because there was very little out there that was accurate about what was taking place," Rhoads said. "Anybody citing sources and all that had no real idea in my opinion what was going on. When the athletic director (Jamie Pollard) had information to share with me, which was very rare, then I paid attention."

The daily discussion about realignment has taken some of the shine off the Big 12's early-season football success. Five Big 12 teams are ranked among the nation's top 19. Iowa State is receiving votes in both the Associated Press and USA Today/ESPN Coaches poll.

"I encourage our players to never be frustrated because if you're frustrated you just spin your wheels," Rhoads said. "I'm not a spin-my-wheels-type of guy. So we move on and understand what the situation is.

"We've got three teams (Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M) in the top 10, we've got five teams (Texas, Baylor) that are in the top 25, we've got a sixth team (Missouri) that's been in the top 25. We've got a pretty good football conference. We've got a pretty good conference overall. We're still walking around with our heads held high and our chest out about that."

Iowa State's players have ignored the daily updates about conference realignment and instead have just focused on the Cyclones' next opponent: Texas on Oct. 1.

"He doesn't talk about it and he doesn't need to," Iowa State linebacker Jake Knott said. "We're focused on this great Texas team that we're playing who's going to be great. We're not going to be worried about the conference stuff when we've got a team like Texas coming to town."