THE END OF THE ROAD

Back in 2006, there was no real Iowa blogosphere.  There were the recruiting sites and message boards, to be sure, but anyone looking for a proper Iowa football or basketball blog were left lacking.  I started a Blogspot site in September 2006.  Jacobi started an Iowa basketball Blogspot site in February 2007.  I don't think either one of us knew the other existed.  It took the departure of Steve Alford to put us in each other's orbit, and a bit of work from editor emeritus Jebus H. Christ to put everyone together, but The Hawkeye Compulsion was born on August 1, 2007.

Six weeks (and one Iowa football credit-card-slash-hat-purchase scandal) later, SB Nation came calling.  They wouldn't allow us to use a team name or mascot in our name, which killed the then-current moniker.  Jebus provided the developers with Black Heart Gold Pants as a placeholder, fully expecting we would pick a different name later.  We never agreed on anything else, and eventually that was just the name of the site.  It lasted for nine years, in which we added eight other contributors, posted 7,529 articles of varying quality, and registered 7,851 commenter accounts.  We had a party for a deity that we created and got a not-insubstantial number of people to attend.  We launched a podcast based almost exclusively on parody songs.  I'm fairly certain we're the longest-standing editorial staff of any SB Nation college site.

After a not-inconsiderable amount of discussion, we have decided it's time for another change.  On August 1, the BHGP staff will no longer be the BHGP staff.  We're going to hand off the SB Nation Iowa site to someone else and start a new site.  It won't be Black Heart Gold Pants.  It will be us, as it's always been.  We're still working out details, but we'll release everything on Twitter/Facebook/etc. in the next week or so.  We're expecting to be up and running on August 1, with more than enough time to get you ready for football season.  We hope you join us.

We also hope you continue to support this site, whether it's still Black Heart Gold Pants or its new owner finally removes the temporary name and takes it in a different direction.  We have no right to exclusive use of the platform, you have plenty of time to kill at work every day, and blogging is not a zero-sum game.  We hope you continue to read us, but you should read as much Iowa content as you can, including this site.  If there is one thing we have learned in the last nine years, it's that the Iowa fanbase is smart, passionate and diverse.  You should be able to read all of it, no matter the location or affiliation.

This week, we'll finish up the final Marchifornication and cover anything that comes out of Big Ten media days.  SB Nation will soon be posting an advertisement for the opening.  If you think you're interested -- and I mean really interested, to the point where you're willing to let your personal relationships suffer because a third-string kicker is leaving the program -- writing this site can be one of the most rewarding experiences of your life.  It has been for us.

See you soon.  Go Iowa awesome.

PV