I've been an NU fan my whole life, so obviously I want everything positive for NU. But while I grew up my first 30 years in the Chicago area, I have spent the last eight living in Des Moines and married to an Iowa State alum who has 10 siblings (6 of which went to Iowa State, and her parents both went to Iowa State). Because of that, Iowa State has become my second team (a distant second though). A few things I'll say:
1) I never thought I'd live in Iowa, but now I'm glad I do. I miss family and friends in the Chicago area, but as far as lifestyle goes, I'd take living in Des Moines over Chicago 100 times out of 100. Another person may say the exact opposite. To each their own. But one thing that makes me laugh is when people try and compare going to school in Evanston to a smaller town/city (whether it be Iowa City, Ames, West Lafayette, etc.). Some people don't want the big city and prefer to live in a smaller town. Most big city people don't seem to get that. Going to school in a huge metropolitan area is not appealing to a lot of people- some others may think it's great and that may push them to NU. Everyone is different folks.
2) Iowa State has some nice momentum going. I'd actually compare them most to Purdue right now in the sense that they play second fiddle in their own state, were down for many years, but now have a young energetic coach that has got them winning some (both teams got into bowls last year and won). Campbell has a nice thing going there and I think it's more likely he stays long term at Iowa State than Brohm at Purdue. Though, admittedly, I wouldn't be surprised if both jump to bigger jobs.
3) The Iowa State fanbase may not be huge, but it is much bigger than ours (NU) and their game day experience is significantly better. When they are competitive, their atmosphere is actually a lot of fun and they can fill that stadium pretty easily.
4) Obviously, the education at NU is better than Iowa State, but ISU is a nice school, especially with Engineering (half of my wife's family went there for Engineering). You can get a good education at ISU. It's not like if you choose ISU, you are taking online classes through the University of Phoenix.
Bummer that we didn't land Brock, but I get why he chose ISU.