The Cyclone women's team has been gutted by the transfer portal, and Pollard attempted to compare that situation to Iowa women's basketball. Two days later, it still doesn't make sense.
Jamie Pollard, Iowa State's athletic director, has built the Cyclone athletic department from a cracker box to a respectable Power Four program, but he's also the man that is responsible for slowly returning it to the cellar.
Cael Sanderson, Matt Campbell, and Fred Hoiberg have all left Ames for one reason or another, and it might be only a matter of time before T.J. Otzelberger decides to jump ship for a blue blood.
What does this have to do with the Iowa Hawkeyes you may ask? Absolutely nothing, but all of that changed when Pollard decided to post a video statement on the afternoon of April 2.
The statement involves Pollard recapping the 2025-26 Iowa State men's and women's basketball seasons, with a primary focus on the women's team, which has seen most of its roster gutted by the transfer portal in the weeks following the season.
Again, that doesn't have anything to do with the Hawkeyes, but Pollard buckled down and tried to compare the Cyclones' transfer portal situation with Iowa. As of April 2, Iowa State women's basketball has 10 players in the portal, including stars Audi Crooks, Jada Williams, and Addy Brown. On the flip side, the Hawkeyes have just three, and all of them were bench players.
Iowa's situation is not even comparable to Iowa State's, but that didn't stop Pollard from saying this:
"And there's another school here in the Midwest that hosted NCAA tournament games that is likely down to six players."
Though the Hawkeyes aren't explicitly mentioned in this quote, everyone and their dead relative knows Pollard was talking about Iowa. While the ever-changing landscape of college athletics could overhaul the Hawkeyes' roster in due time, the differences between the two programs are vast.
Iowa State again underachieved with a talented roster, rising as high as No. 10 in the national polls before suffering a mid-season collapse and bowing out to ninth-seeded Syracuse in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
The Cyclones did beat Iowa in December, but the young Hawkeye team ascended to second in the Big Ten standings by season's end, won 27 games, and earned a No. 2 seed in the Big Dance.
The roles were supposed to be flipped here, but Iowa's program is in a much healthier position. Jan Jensen continues to recruit blue chip talent, while longtime Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly, though confirmed by Pollard to return in 2027, may not be on the sidelines much longer.
Pollard's statement, while unusual for athletic directors to do so, was harmless. Mixing your archival into the equation was, however.
Two days later, it still doesn't make much sense.
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