Auburn beat Oregon in a nail-biter Monday. Like most interested sports fans at Iowa State, I’ve been thinking about what it means to me that Gene Chizik has gotten a national championship.

For me, personally, I’m fine with it. I had let the events of my freshman year get clouded by the joy of my sophomore year, as Cyclone fans watched Paul Rhoads take over the program.

But the rest of Cyclone nation?

That’s a different story.

As I watched the end of the game Monday night, as the events of the game unfolded, I could plainly hear who the people in the surrounding apartments were rooting for. 

It wasn’t Auburn.

I heard cheers that rivaled an Iowa-Iowa State game. Floor pounding, wall-rattling voices that would make you think it was the Cyclones who were driving for the game-tying touchdown, as Oregon was late in the game.

They say time heals all wounds. Apparently it hasn’t been enough time for Cyclone fans.

Sean Keeler wrote in the Des Moines Register that Cyclone fans need to let Chizik go. WHO-Channel 13’s Keith Murphy echoed that sentiment in his blog after the game, saying both sides are better off.

They’re both right. Yes, as people we shouldn’t hang on to grudges or anger. And yes, if given the choice retroactively, Cyclone fans would choose Rhoads every time. 

But here’s the difference: while Cyclone fans should let Chizik go, they don’t want to. They also don’t want to be told how to feel about it.

At almost every turn since the day he left Ames, Chizik has referred to Iowa State like it was an unpleasant hour he had to spend with in-laws he doesn’t care for. Even after the national championship game, he had nothing to say for Iowa State.

I just don’t understand it. I don’t think many people do. Why the ambivalence for your stepping stone, the place that gave you your first chance?

That isn’t for us to answer, though. Only he really knows how he feels about his time in Ames, and it’s likely that he will be the only one to ever know.

That’s why it’s so hard for Cyclone fans, especially students, to have anything but disdain for him.

He was introduced at Hilton Coliseum through the game day tunnel and promised a lot of things. Even after two awful years, he still had much of the student body hopeful. 

For as long as I can remember, whenever I talk to Cyclone fans, there’s a common theme: They want to be competitive consistently. In general, ISU students and fans at large are an informed group. They know Iowa State will never be Alabama in football or Duke in basketball. They just want the chance to root for a team that’s in the hunt, with maybe a shot at jumping up and taking a swing at the big boys every once in a while.

What Chizik represented was just another mark in the loss column for Iowa State. Lost structure for the football team, lost recruits that could’ve made an impact, lost hope for the future.

Of course, that was where Rhoads stepped in. But that’s like getting remarried. You aren’t going to forget, or even necessarily forgive your ex-spouse if they cheated on you and left you for someone with a bigger house and more money.

Sure, you’re happier than you’ve ever been and don’t wish it was any different, but when you see the ex and their new spouse driving past you in their shiny new Beemer, you kind of hope they turn into oncoming traffic; or break down at least.

Just don’t tell fans how to feel. Sure, we shouldn’t worry about what Auburn does, because let’s be honest, there’s no way that would’ve been Iowa State’s national championship game Monday night in Phoenix. But watching a man who used your favorite team or school reach the pinnacle of college football is like a giant punch in the stomach.

So forgive the fans if they aren’t happy about it. I don’t expect that to change any time soon, and if you know anything about the nature of sports and its fans, you won’t either.