Hate Week. The Real One.

I'm assuming that when you hear the term "Hate Week" on an Iowa State blog, you're assuming that it refers to the University of Iowa. Well, most of the time you would be correct. However, when it comes to Mr. Underwood, you would be 100% off the mark. Don't get me wrong. I hate the Hawks. People from Chicago suburbs are douche bags. The Iowa City bars aren't all that much fun. Nothing is more annoying than a Knoxville trailer park resident insulting Iowa State University and "Lames" despite his inability to point out Iowa City on a map.

But you know what? I can respect segments of the Iowa fanbase. Iowa got butt trounced by Penn State on Saturday, and will be lucky to make a bowl. They have one season over 9 wins in the since 2004 (which is pretty good), but they will pack the fucking house next weekend. To put it simply, Iowa fans care, and they will support less than stellar success.

Which brings me to my target of the week.

Baylor.

FUCK Baylor. I have NEVER seen a school have the level of success that their football and men's basketball programs enjoyed last year be met with so much apathy from its own fanbase. In some respects, I hate Baylor more than any school on our schedule because their fans refuse to support a quality athletic product.

My story with Baylor is a complicated one. For years I saw them as ISU's long lost brother in the old Big 12 South. I rooted for them to pull through the murder scandal. I lustily celebrated their upsets of OU and Aggy during the Guy Morris era. I wasn't even that mad when they ended their 10 year conference road losing streak in Jack Trice, because, hey, it was Baylor.

And then I went to Waco.

In the fall of 2008, I geared up for my buddies' and I's annual football road trip. We had selected Waco because my buddy WeeWee had just moved to Houston, and it was a good excuse to go visit him. I scouted some message boards and asked around about the tailgate scene. I was told that while things wouldn't match ISU standards, I would be met by a healthy tailgate scene and friendly fans.

This turned out to be the equivalent of being promised a ribeye from the McDonald's dollar menu.

Fueled by a solid morning of drinking, we rolled into Waco that day wholly unprepared for what we would discover. I had checked out Floyd-Casey Stadium (or FCS, the acronym for the college football subdivision where Baylor's fanbase and defense belong) on Google and it appeared to have the best of both worlds: ample parking right next to a residential neighborhood that assumedly embraced Baylor game day. This couldn't fail. Wrong.

We pull off I-35 and start to notice right away that Waco is full of dirty gas stations and strip malls. As we inch closer to the stadium, we realize that there is absolutely fucking nobody at the game. As we circle Floyd-Casey, we notice that there are literally no tailgates set up. We roll right into a parking spot, next to a few other ISU fans. The only other people there.

We set up, and kick back, and spend the rest of the day pretty much surrounded by nothing but ISU fans. Cars show up, but people disappear. We see a Baylor tailgate set up, but when we approach to mingle, we're greeted by frat boys in popped collars and white slacks who look at us like we're aliens. We see very few other Baylor fans prior to kick.

Eventually its time to head into the game. We're immediately ejected for consuming alcohol, and somehow manage to sneak back in. Once we find our seats, we take in the crowd of roughly 20,000 Baylor fans and 5,000 ISU fans. The Bears kick our ass, and we go on our way.

Flash forward: In the interim, I have visited 4 other Big 12 schools including TCU. At no other school have I witnessed anything approaching the fan apathy I saw in Waco. Where the Baylor lots were barren and empty up to an hour prior to kick, the other fanbases celebrate their school. Where Baylor fans were cold and aloof to ISU fans, the other fanbases have been welcoming and friendly. At all other schools fans embraced the idea of tailgating, partying, and being good hosts.

But not Baylor. While the Bears have enjoyed 10 win seasons and a Heisman Trophy Winner, they've struggled to fill a less-than-50K seat stadium. Now they're even bothering to build a brand new gajillion dollar stadium that no one is going to show up to either. Baylor can't put 50,000 people in their stadium in a football crazy state when they're less than 2 hours from either DFW or Austin.

Why is this? Is this because they're a small school? Bear fans would like to have you believe this, but do you think that Notre Dame has a large student body? The stadium isn't that damn big, and they had to put a tarp in to cover a 5,000 seat section because they could never fucking sell out. No; this is all because Baylor fans suck. This phenomena is not exclusive to football. Baylor basketball has been excellent for about 5 years, yet they still fail to come anywhere close to filling a 10,000 seat arena.

Simply put: Baylor fans suck. They are the worst fanbase in the Big 12, by a mile. Yeah, TCU fans don't attend that well, but at least the ones who do know how to party and have a good time. When you call Baylor fans (at least the ones who troll CycloneFanatic and the ESPN boards) on their shit they respond with stuff like "well, your fans go to sporting events because Iowa sucks. In Texas we have awesome stuff to do like going vigilante on illegal immigrants, talking about how awesome Texas is, and executing the mentally handicapped".

That's right. Baylor fans actually brag about why they don't go to games and support their team.

That last sentence says more than anything else I could type. These people simply don't deserve the quality programs they've watched over the past years. This is why it is imperative for us to find a running game, stuff it up their ass, and send them back to Waco to get invaded by the ATF. Go fuck yourself, Baylor.