Cy is currently in a dead heat with the Arkansas Razorback in the National Championship of www.cbs.sportsline.com’s “Most Dominant College Mascot on Earth” contest.

A cloud of controversy still looms over the semifinal match, however, which pitted Cy against Sparty of Michigan State.

Brody Coffman, freshman in industrial engineering, was accused of cheating by a Sparty Facebook fan group consisting of more than 4,000 members, during the match, which took place May 18 to 25.

The allegations stemmed from a post Coffman placed on one of Cy’s support groups on the same Web site in which Coffman claimed he had rigged two computers to vote 600 times per minute.

“Some Michigan State crybabies obviously saw they couldn’t hang with the relentless Cyclone Nation for all four quarters and tried to put a smudge on our dominant victory,” Coffman said. “They said I was a cheater, but on the same page they ‘reported’ me on they had step-by-step instructions on how to mass vote, clearly breaking the rules of the poll. I don’t see why they are cryin’ about this.”

After the allegations were made and brought to the attention J. Darin Darst, writer for www.cbs.sportsline.com and coordinator of the matchup, opportunities to vote for both sides were ceased. This did not sit to well with the Spartan faithful.

“We found a post on an ISU message board on Facebook where someone claimed to have rigged two computers to vote 600 times per minute, so that’s kind of suspicious, but we don’t know if he actually did it or not, so it’s hard to say that any Cyclones were definitely cheating,” said Patrick Niebrzydowski, a Michigan State student. “I wasn’t happy with the way CBS handled it though. They essentially shut down the voting so that we couldn’t vote like we had been earlier in the week, but this was after ISU had gained a huge lead, so we didn’t really have a chance to come back. I would have rather they just completely ignored it and let it play out than what they did.”

Darst, who was also in contact with Coffman based on the allegations of cheating, said this controversy was to be expected.

“I don’t want to single out Michigan State, we got e-mails from both Spartans fans and Cyclones fans accusing the other of cheating,” Darst said. “Accusations by both sides are something that’s expected in the heat of the battle. Both schools take pride in their mascot and school, and both just want to make sure everybody is playing fair.”

In the end, the crew at www.cbs.sportline.com decided that all was fair in the battle and that Cy outvoted Sparty 56 percent to 44 percent with a total of 3,476,157 votes – more than any other matchup in the tournament. The other semifinal match between the BYU Cougar and the Arkansas Razorback only generated 718,738 votes.

Maybe the real National Championship was played in the semis . sound familiar?

“I wanted us to pull this one off. The Spartans strike a sore spot with me after the 2000 Elite Eight [men’s basketball game, in which Michigan State beat Iowa State, 75-64], more or less National Championship game where they pulled it out in the end,” Coffman said. “This time they didn’t get so lucky.”

The Cyclones did get revenge on the Spartans from 2000, but depending on how imaginative a mind is, it’s doubtful a cardinal would really take out a chiseled Spartan warrior in the heat of battle. This was a battle of school pride.

“The contest really was about fan dedication more than it was about mascots at that point,” Niebrzydowski said. “I noticed that ISU seemed to be getting the most votes in all the earlier rounds so it would be a tough match up, but also that MSU has dedicated fans so it would be a good battle.”

Although some bitterness may still be lingering – “my Facebook inbox is constantly full with hateful messages,” Coffman said – the total number of votes should be enough to make both schools proud.

To vote in the finals, visit iowastatedaily.net for a link to the poll.

“From what I hear, a razorback can jump really high, and that’s about it,” Coffman said. “So it would be sucked up, shaken violently and then carelessly dispersed many miles away. I don’t see how anyone could think that a glorified pig could stop a Cardinal-topped natural disaster. Forget about it.”

Link:Vote here