Category: Uncategorized

I sat down and decided it was time to talk college. Specifically, the colleges of Iowa. According to Wikipedia, the greatest source on the internet, there are 56 colleges and universities in the state of Iowa. That’s simply too many to fit on my list and quite frankly, some just aren’t worth ranking. For example: Palmer Chiropractic, which is in Davenport, Iowa, is a school specifically for chiropractors. That’s not to say that it’s not worth ranking, but it just doesn’t match up to the way these other schools do. I decided to rank them, as well as give my thoughts as to why they are where they are.

Without further ado, the rankings.

S Tier

These schools are the ones you know. They’re the big names, all Division 1 athletics, and when people think about Iowa, they think of these schools. They represent the state well, and a large majority of students that attend Iowa college choose one of the S tier schools.

A Tier

Just a step down from S tier we have A tier. These schools are ones that might not have the notoriety that the S tier has, but they make up for it in their own unique way. They might be a competitive sports school, a nice place to get an education, or really just a place with a lot of personality. You might have heard of these schools, and that really says something.

B Tier

These schools are solid! They aren’t the best, but they are still a solid pick. They have a lot going for them, and the people going to them would say the same. There’s reason’s people still go to those schools. It could be to keep competing in a sports setting, or even more for the private academics. Either way, these schools hold their own.

C Tier

These schools are just okay. They’re not bad, but they aren’t good. They are those schools that seem to just be hanging out. How do you articulate that? These schools definitely have some character, but it’s next to nothing compared to those above. If you go to one of these, it’s more often than not to keep playing a sport, not because you want to.

D Tier

This tier is tough. There’s a lot of schools above you, but you’re not quite the worst yet. It’s a tough place to be. Some of the schools here could have been in C tier, but it’s simply too competitive. Likewise, the worst schools in this category aren’t quite bad enough to drop to F. These schools are here likely because of the personalities that attend them, or simply the lack of notoriety or competitiveness that the categories above them share.

F Tier

What can I say about F tier. These schools STINK. They’re down here for a reason. If you go or went to these schools and loved it, I’m sorry. Not really. I have yet to hear many good things about attending these schools. It’s not to say you’re better off not attending college, but these schools are a rough look to say the least. Some of these may be a hot take, but I stand by each choice and why I put them in this category specifically.

Iowa isn’t exactly known for having famous people. We’re mostly known for our great agriculture, scenery, midwest values, or simply put: corn. However, that doesn’t mean we don’t have our own set of people that have reached a high level of fame outside of agriculture. That being said, I decided to find 5 of those very same figures you may not know are from Iowa!

#5: Danai Gurira

Born in Grinnell, Iowa, in 1978, Danai is both a citizen of Zimbabwe and the United States. Her parent both worked for Grinnell college before moving around the midwest and back into Zimbabwe for some time.

She would come back to the U.S. for her post-secondary education, and soon after would break into the world of acting. In 2012, she officially joined the cast of the hit show: The Walking Dead as the character Michonne. In 2018, she took the role of General Okoye in the Marvel classic: Black Panther, which has gone on to earn 1.3 billion dollars worldwide.

#4: Johnny Carson

Johnny Carson was born in 1925 in Corning, Iowa. He lived in Iowa until he was 8 years old and then grew up in Nebraska. He originally wanted to be a magician, and while serving in the Navy he realized he had a talent for entertaining others.

He is known best for his late night talk show The Tonight Show, which he hosted for nearly thirty years. Bringing in celebrities of all walks of life, Johnny pioneered much of the late-night broadcast we see today.

#3: Elijah Wood

Born in Cedar Rapids in 1981, Elijah Wood started acting from a very early age. His family sold their local store for him to pursue acting in California, which in turn resulted in him being very successful.

Elijah held major roles in movies when he was a child actor, but then went on to host even bigger projects. In 2001 he received the role of Frodo in the Lord of the Rings franchise, one of the biggest movie franchises ever. Shortly after, he would go on to voice act in the movie Happy Feet, which also received rave reviews.

#2: Adam Devine

Where are my pitch perfect fans at? Adam Devine is most well known for his role in the extremely popular Pitch Perfect movie, where his character Bumper is the main villain. Before that though, he was born in Waterloo, Iowa before growing up in Lincoln Nebraska. When he was 11, he was hit my a concrete truck that almost cost him his life.

Adam has gone on to star in other shows and movies, and can be seen in many cameos throughout Hollywood. He is known for his unique comedic style, which he helped shape during the show Workaholics.

#1: John Wayne

John Wayne was born in Winterset, Iowa, in 1907. He moved out to Southern California at an early age, but went on to be one of the most well known male actors of all time. He has appeared in 179 productions, and has claimed great success as a pioneer in the Western genre.

After his death, he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor one can achieve. You can still visit his house in Winterset though, and still watch his many western movies online.

If you’re like me, then you enjoy a good bracket challenge.

Before March Madness kicks off, we as Iowans get a two straight weeks of competitive basketball.

First, the Iowa High School Girls State Basketball Tournament starts in late February and typically goes into early March. There are 5 total classes and LOTS of competitive basketball, you can tell the sport is growing.

Not to be outdone, however, the boy’s State Tournament begins the week after. With just 4 total classes, we get to witness another slew of big games, moments, and memories. These two unions create an atmosphere and environment that makes the whole state put everything on hold and watch, and it’s exciting.

So how do you know what teams to pick and cheer for?

There’s some key things you need to know before making your picks.

1: General info and stats

What’s a bracket challenge without doing your research? For this, be sure to check out https://www.gobound.com/ia to see points, rebounds, size, and all the factors that can indicate whether a team might win or lose.

2: Schedule

Arguably the most important part of the challenge is determining who has the harder schedule. With teams coming in from all over the state, it’s important to know how to value them. How does a team with an easier schedule and great record stack up against a team with harder competition but more losses?

For me, I personally give an edge to those who play a harder schedule. The farther down in classes you go, you will see the benefit of playing harder games show through a less impressive record.

3: The Rankings are not always correct

The rankings that are released are done so very quickly after the final playoff games are tallied. This is done so as to setup the State Tournaments efficiently and effectively. However, sometimes it seems rushed or not thought through.

The people creating the seeding often have bias or may favor certain teams over others. It’s not a downright outrage, but it’s nice to have an accurate tournament. The rankings can be used as an indicator, not as a final tally. After doing my own bracket challenges and predictions, about 60-70 of the time the seedings are correct.

4: Beware the undefeated

More times than not, teams that come into the state tournament undefeated are not who they say they are. They may be a top team in the state, but likely are overinflated to a point where they may not have the ability to win. They have won all of their games by 20 or more, and have’t stuck around to hang with anyone in a close game. This hurts them, as in the postseason when games get tough and you find yourself down, they struggle to comeback and win.

However, some teams really ARE just that good. I often see this at the 4A and 5A levels. It’s not to say a team can’t be good because they’re undefeated, it just can really depend based on games.

5: Be careful betting against the CIML (Central Iowa Metro League)

We’ve seen time and time again the dominance in the Des Moines area, which means there can be upset value in teams seeded higher than a Des Moines area school. It’s not always a surefire bet, but just know more often then not Des Moines stays dominant.

Besides Des Moines, there are other areas of the state that are really tough to not consider in matchups. For example, northwest Iowa is extremely competitive at smaller levels, and even southeast Iowa has some 3A teams that are known to disrupt teams from making deep state runs.

Combine all 5 of those elements, and you’re ready to make your bracket! Just remember that just like March Madness, you can do all that research and still be wrong! Take it from me!

Two drastically different parts of the state. Or are they really?

Growing up, I had no idea what western Iowa really held. In fact, it seemed to make sense to me that no one in their right mind would live any farther west than Des Moines. Up until that point I had thought there wasn’t much out there.

Eastern Iowa has 7 cities with a population of over 20,000 people, whereas western Iowa has only 3 cities. If you include Fort Dodge, which when looking directly at a map, seems to fall on the western side of the state. This being said, I had thought that there wasn’t anything in western Iowa.

In eastern Iowa, the geography is very forgiving. Like any part of the midwest, there’s a cornfield in every direction. More than that though, there are rolling hills, and beautiful river valleys all the way from Muscatine to Lansing. The other half of the state contains much of the same, but with one major landmark: Loess Hills. These formations were formed in the last 30,000 years from glacial movement and wind depositing silt and soil.

To my surprise, there was much to reconsidered.

Journeying throughout much of the south and northwest of Iowa on a roadtrip excursion this past summer, I saw lots of what I was wrong about.

People DO live there! More than that, that side of the state is essentially the same. Apart from the drastic Loess Hills on the very western side, which are basically mini-mountains, it looks the same. This was really shocking for me. Granted, things looked slightly different, but for the most part it was the same.

I realized at this point that western and eastern Iowa are not so different after all.