Well, it's always great to go around the Big 12 conference and welcome on various athletic directors.

And no one's seen more of the good, the bad, and the ugly from around the Big 12 conference in the last several years.

Then our next guest, Jamie Pollard, the Iowa State Athletic Director, joins us on Heartland College Sports.

I'm Pete Mundo. It's always good to be with you.

And whether you're watching us on

YouTube, whether you're on the podcast, of course, on our radio affiliates, we appreciate you being here.

Hit that subscribe button. And let's get to it with the Iowa State AD. Jamie, thanks for joining us.

Let's just start off with this time of year. As I said to you before we started, it feels like kind of the calm before the storm,

Big 12 football, of course, getting underway, but we've got four new teams entering the Big 12.

How exciting is that based on really what has been a tumultuous last 24 months for this conference?

Oh, absolutely exciting.

Those four institutions bring a lot of stability, credibility to our league.

I've been in this league for 18 years. I've got the scars, the bruises, the bumps, the scratches,

you name it from all the challenges we've experienced.

And I can honestly say probably the last 12 months have been about as productive of time that this league has ever had.

I give a ton of credit to Commissioner Bowlesby for getting those four schools solidified

before he left.

And I give a ton of credit to Commissioner Yormark for coming in and

really throwing a lot of mud at the wall and challenging us to think differently and setting us up

for this moment to have these four schools come on board. How important was it, Jamie, to look back

at that year that you guys considered expansion. I want to say that was 18 or 19.

And you had your list and you ultimately decided not to expand. But you basically went back to

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