Iowa State is the top-ranked men’s cross country team in the country. However, there is now a glaring asterisk on the leaderboard next to the Ames-based university after a sudden suspension of its top athletes.
The official reason for the punishment has not been announced.
There are a lot of rumors about what might or might not be going on with the track and field program at Iowa State. Nothing has been confirmed at this point in time.
Iowa State ranks No. 1 in the country.
The Cyclones started the 2025 cross country season as the top-ranked men’s team in the National Coaches’ Poll. Preseason rankings do not matter but nothing has changed.
Iowa State stayed in the top spot for the entire year.
The next Coaches’ Poll will be released on Tuesday but the results speak for themselves. The Cyclones won their first two meets of the season to retain their No. 1 ranking. They were not dropped for resting six of their top seven runners during a 27th-place finish at the Nuttycombe Invitation on Oct. 17.
As a result, Iowa State is still ranked at No. 1 heading into the Big 12 Championships this weekend. It is not only expected to win the conference, anything short of a national title would be a letdown.
The landscape of men’s cross country looks completely different.
Although the Cyclones had national championship hopes, they will be without some of their top runners for an undisclosed amount of time. The entire outlook for men’s cross country has changed.
Rumors started to swirl about problems at Iowa State over the weekend.
Jeremy Sudbury, the Director of Cross Country & Track and Field at Iowa State, later confirmed the rumors to The Stride. Multiple men’s athletes have been “suspended from the team for the season for breaking team rules.”
He did not provide a reason why. He did not name the athletes who are suspended.
The university issued a second statement on Monday morning:
“A few of our men’s cross country runners have been suspended for violating team rules. The Iowa State men’s cross country team is looking forward to competing at the Big 12 Championships this week. We will have no further comment at this time.”
Sudbury said that he does not foresee this latest incident having an impact on team performance during the upcoming postseason. I don’t know how that can be true unless the athletes who are suspended are irrelevant to success as low-end roster guys.
Why are the athletes suspended?
The real answer to the above question is that we do not know. Neither Iowa State nor the NCAA has explained the reason for why these athletes are suspended.
Everything else, at this point in time, is gossip and speculation. We do not know.
Oone of the most popular theories surrounding the potentially earth-shattering suspension stems from the use of performance-enhancing drugs. That is not confirmed. There is no evidence to suggest that is what happened.
However, this is what track and field media personality and former Division-I track athlete Erin Brown had to say about the situation:
NCAA #1 Ranked XC Team This Season, Iowa State Athlete Busted For EPO Then Snitches On 4-5 Other Athletes! pic.twitter.com/ieQjUpiwNe
— The Erin Brown🕷 (@TheErinBrown) October 26, 2025
The truth may or may not come out in the coming days, weeks and/or months. We’ll see.
In the meantime, all we know is that Iowa State will be without an undisclosed number of athletes at the Big 12 Championships and NCAA Championships. Those athletes are of undisclosed importance.