America’s best instate football rivalry? Look no further than here in the Tall Corn State

Saturday is the day of college football’s greatest instate rivalry.

It isn’t known as that around the nation, or even within the borders of its own state. That’s because human beings don’t pay attention. We’re too busy looking at our phones while Labubus become omnipresent.

For the blissfully unaware, Labubus are little dolls, elves that are monsters with sharp teeth. I learned this only because they were mocked on this week’s episode of “South Park,” which I put my phone down long enough to watch.

Labubus are a global phenomenon, Iowa-Iowa State is the best instate college football matchup in the sport, and how many of us knew either?

Numbers may sometimes throw shade on the truth, but they don’t lie. The numbers say no other instate tug-of-war has been as closely contested over the last 15 years than the Cyclones and Hawkeyes.

Did you know nine of the last 13 games between the two were decided by one score, and the 2015 game was tied before Iowa scored two touchdowns in the final 2:14?

Did you know or remember the following factoid, or is it simply too bizarre to even consider? The Cyclones beat the Hawkeyes, 44-41, in triple-overtime at Jack Trice Stadium in 2011, and the Hawkeyes beat the Cyclones, 44-41, in single-overtime at the same site in 2017.

Now, what I’m about to write here is beating a dead horse yet again, but the truth will set you free.

Namely, “Cy-Hawk” is a dull, awful name for this game. No one at either school ever tries to change it to something dramatic, something filled with imagery. Something that at least has a pulse. So, Cy-Hawk it is.

Cy-Hawk isn’t “Iron Bowl” or “Egg Bowl” or “Apple Cup.” Thus, it has no gravitas like Auburn-Alabama or Ole Miss-Mississippi State or Washington State-Washington. Even the Sunflower Showdown between Kansas and Kansas State is a better name than Cy-Hawk, and it can’t say that about much else.

On the field, however, Iowa-Iowa State has had the rest of the rivalries outclassed. In the last five meetings of every instate clash in FBS, none have had as many tight, tense games as Hawkeyes-Cyclones. No other series has had four of those games decided by one score, with the other one decided by 10 points.

The average margin in those five ISU-Iowa games was 4.4 points. The next-closest of any instate game is Ole Miss-Mississippi State’s 8.2.

Other average margins of their last five meetings: Florida-Florida State, 12.4 points. Alabama-Auburn, 14.2. Michigan-Michigan State, 17. Virginia Tech-Virginia, 18. Kansas State-Kansas, 18.4. Miami-Florida State, 24.

Indiana and Purdue play for the Old Oaken Bucket, first awarded 100 years ago. That’s cool. But last year, the Hoosiers beat the Boilermakers, 66-0.

The Arizona-Arizona State rivalry is called the Duel in the Desert. A simple, good, geographically correct name. And a game that’s mostly been a dud, with three of the last five decided by at least 36 points and one by 63.

Iowa State won last year’s CyHawk, 20-19, on a 54-yard field goal with six seconds left. The year before, the Hawkeyes had a defensive stand to get the ball back with 1:23 left in a 20-13 triumph.

It’s a series with no home-field advantage. The visiting team has won the last five times, which is kind of wild.

No Big 12 team has fared as well at Jack Trice in that time as Iowa, including departed Oklahoma and Texas. Ohio State and Penn State lost the last time they came to Kinnick Stadium. The only Big Ten club that has won its last two games at Iowa is USC, but the Trojans haven’t been here in 50 years.

None of the preceding guarantees Saturday’s Hawkeyes-Cyclones affair will be competitive, let alone another thriller decided in the final moments. Yet, would anyone be the least bit surprised if it were?

These are two good teams, two proven programs with their school’s all-time winningest head coaches. Iowa won 10 games in 2021 and 2023. Iowa State won 11 times last season. Both have played in two conference championship games since 2020.

So let’s not be humble here, Iowans. Call the CyHawk the greatest instate football rivalry in America with conviction. But please, get rid of its crummy name.

Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com

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