In a Sport About Money, Iowa State’s Core Just Bet on Each Other

Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell isn’t one to chase headlines, but at Big 12 Media Days, he dropped a line that’s sticking with everyone who heard it.

“Our top 20 guys took a pay cut to come back to Iowa State,” Campbell told ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

In a college football world built on NIL dollars and transfer offers, that’s about as rare as it gets. Campbell made it clear that his best players had bigger offers on the table, and they still chose to stay in Ames. Not for the cash, but for each other.

That says everything about what’s brewing inside the Cyclones’ locker room.

Iowa State doesn’t have a massive NIL war chest, and Campbell’s not pretending otherwise. But what he does have is buy-in. Players like Rocco Becht, Abu Sama, Jeremiah Cooper, and more are returning not because they couldn’t cash out elsewhere, but because they believe they’re building something that can win big.

This isn’t about flashy collectives or bidding wars. This is about a coach who has convinced his core that what they’re doing matters more than what someone else might offer. It’s about trust, culture, and a locker room that’s locked in.

For a team that ended last season with momentum and returns serious firepower on both sides of the ball, that commitment matters. And for Matt Campbell, it’s just another reason to believe that Iowa State is still trending upward, no matter what the checkbooks may say.

In an era where loyalty is usually for sale, the Cyclones are zigging while everyone else zags. If they can make a run in the Big 12 this fall, it’ll be built on more than talent. It’ll be built on unity.