It’s that tIme agaIn, Cyclones.

You know, that tIme of year when we show the natIon what we’re best at: votIng In onlIne polls.

And In 2008, It’s a bIggIe: Cy has been chosen to be part of the 2008 CapItal One All-AmerIcan Mascot Team and compete to be the wInner of the seventh-annual CapItal One NatIonal Mascot of the Year. You know, the one wIth the natIonally televIsed commercIals and all the crazy mascot antIcs. The one wIth the wInner that gets announced on Jan. 1, 2009, durIng the CapItal One Bowl.

(ThIs edItorIal also brought to you by CapItal One. Because ISU students don’t already have enough contact wIth credItors after graduatIon.)

If you go to the contest Web sIte, www.capItalonebowl.com, you can learn more about the contest and even vote for Cy to beat hIs opponent (Smokey, from the UnIversIty of Tennessee, In Week 1).

The Web sIte Is pretty cool. Cy’s great. He domInates the Intro vIdeo on the contest Web sIte. He gets the fIrst second or so all to hImself, somethIng none of the other mascots can lay claIm to. Cy, he’s so … fly.

It’s just, well, as awesome as Cy Is, we’re not seeIng hIm on campus much. In fact, If we dIdn’t know better, we’d thInk he had been knocked out cold and thrown Into the tIers at Parks LIbrary, only to be seen by cultural anthropology students doIng honors projects and freshman DaIly staff reporters wrItIng another GrIdIron story.

Instead, campus has been InfIltrated by somethIng new, somethIng grand, somethIng … obvIous? The athletIc department’s current marketIng plan: You don’t need a badass bIrd when you can have a badass, bold, blocky letter “I.” ThIs thIng’s practIcally 3-D. How domInant — no, sexy — Is that?!

Of course, no one let the rest of the unIversIty on to thIs sexy, bold rebrandIng. The rest of us back-yonder hIcks are stIll callIn’ It ISU. We lIke our mascot on the TV rIght now, but It’s only a matter of tIme before Cy Is yanked off the screen In favor of Gene ChIzIk dressed up as a gIant nInth letter of the alphabet.

There’s an easy explanatIon for thIs.

Last summer, we were successful In takIng down CBS Sports’ 2007 Most DomInant College Mascot on Earth competItIon. ThIs, despIte CBS Sports columnIst Gregg Doyel’s opInIon of our beloved mascot:

“He’s a bIrd. More specIfIcally, he’s a cardInal. The LouIsvIlle CardInal. So the fIrst ever wInner of the SPIN Most DomInant College Mascot on Earth Is a low-pressure weather system that looks lIke a LouIsvIlle hand-me-down. WhIch would beat the actual story for how the Cyclones came to be called the Cyclones.”

Maybe AthletIc DIrector JamIe Pollard and hIs staff really took those words to heart. After all, there’s no “I” In team, but there Is one In “bIrd envy.”