Interesting...
In general...armed robbery versus attempted armed robbery...in a case like this incident with ISU FB players, why should these be treated differently? What ultimately matters to society is the intent to do harm (and taking other people's stuff is doing harm), which is the same in both cases. Whether or not the victim being robbed actually had something to steal on his personage should be of minimal importance. The main issue is that a person wanted to steal something from somebody else, and was willing to threaten violence in order to do so.
Once the threat of violence is displayed and the demands made, there is no question of intent.
Given our legal system, charges are often pled down to something lesser for convenience, and everything is "fine" legally. But that doesn't change the real severity of the crime.
If it did really happen that 2 FB players tried to stick up people with a gun, and the majority of the ISU athletic community sees that as no big deal, then ISU athletics is on very dangerous path.
