Where does the CyHawk rivalry rank on a national stage? (2024)

In-State makes it different. Especially since they are the only two Power Conference schools in the state.

Florida
Texas
Cali

All have multiple in-state and it could be argued Florida and Texas biggest “rivals” are out-of-State.

Out-of-Conference also makes it unique.

Cyinthenorth said:

The problem is it isn't a very competitive rivalry. Under McCarney and bleeding through the Rhoads era, it was a good rivalry. But when your team wins less than a 3rd of the time overall, and will be projected to lose for the 7th time in 8 tries this year, it really loses any sort of national appeal quickly. Hell even local appeal to a degree.

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Yes, ISU needs to do a better job of winning this game, but I don't put a lot of stock in the overall record in the series. Iowa has hosted the game 40 of the 70 games with ISU hosting only 30 times even after the cancelled COVID game. Iowa has won 47 times so a portion of the descrepancy can be attributed to homefield advantage.

But yes, ISU needs to do better on this series if they want to be considered for at large playoff spots and want to win the instate recruiting battles.

I voted top 30. Clearly not a top 20 rivalry, but there are some real stinkers out there as well.

JEFF420 said:

No one cares

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Be careful. The “I don’t care” police will come after you.

VeloClone said:

Yes, ISU needs to do a better job of winning this game, but I don't put a lot of stock in the overall record in the series. Iowa has hosted the game 40 of the 70 games with ISU hosting only 30 times even after the cancelled COVID game. Iowa has won 47 times so a portion of the descrepancy can be attributed to homefield advantage.

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Not to mention that ISU had to play the game in its worst 15-year stretch (1983-97), and Iowa got to avoid it during its own similar-length worst stretch (1961-76).

I’d argue no regional rivalry (outside of Michigan vs Ohio State and Army vs Navy) has national significance if there aren’t national stakes (2 top-25 teams, CFP berth on the line, etc.) Look at Miami vs FSU. Growing up that was must-see TV because both teams were good and the games were compelling. I haven’t watched that matchup at this point in the last 10 or more years.

Also, someone mentioned Nebby vs OU as a top 5 rivalry. They don’t even play consistently anymore and haven’t for 20+ years. No one nationally cares about that game or if they ever play it again (unless one or both are good).

Iowa vs ISU hasn’t had the national stakes historically, so its only significance is locally.

ForeverIowan said:

Hard to know until you start listing out the top rivalries in CFB.

1. Michigan/Ohio State
2. Texas/Oklahoma
3. Alabama/Auburn
4. Notre Dame/USC
5. Nebraska/Oklahoma
6. Army/Navy
7. Florida/Georgia
8. Alabama/LSU
9. USC/UCLA
10. FSU/Miami
11. Florida/FSU
12. Oklahoma/Oklahoma State
13. Texas/Texas A&M
14. Michigan/Notre Dame

I might be missing a couple obvious ones. From there you can start arguing. I would say Iowa/Iowa State for sure is a top 25 rivalry. Possibly top 20.

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Pretty good list but Army/Navy belongs at #1.

bigger for sure:
USC/Notre Dame
Mich/Ohio St
Alabama/Auburn
Utah/BYU (I mean it's so bad Utah fans really think MWC would be better than joining Big 12)
Texas/OU (red river)
Army/Navy
Texas/A&M (it will get bigger again)

Equal or bigger but could be dying:
Bedlam
Apple Cup
Oregon/Oregon St

Comparable still mostly going:
WVU/Pitt backyard brawl
Clemson/SC
Auburn/Georgia
Minnesota/Wisconsin
KSU/KU
KSU/ISU

Used to be bigger but died:
Nebraska/Oklahoma

I'm sure I'm forgetting some in the comparable category, that's off top of my head. I'm not even considering games where neither team consistently sells out home games. For example Baylor is a better football program than ISU over several decades now but they don't even sell out games so how can they have a bigger rivalry than two teams in a small state that both sell out two much bigger stadiums. Lots of teams like that where their rivalries are disqualified for lack of caring fans. Also a lot of natural rivalries eliminated because they just don't play often enough.

The one I can't get a read on is the three florida schools playing each other. Big game sure, are they regular rivalry games? They all only have about 60 games vs each other and have never played consistently annually.

State2015 said:

When I lived outside of the Midwest I was shocked about a few things. No one cared about CFB and basically no one knew that Iowa and ISU were different schools, let alone rivals. It’s crazy how little attention is paid to CFB on the coasts, especially by people who didn’t go to big schools. They think Iowa and Idaho and Ohio are the same place

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I've lived near the Rose Bowl and UCLA campus and they have no sports fan culture. Surprisingly USC does have college football culture around the area on gameday Saturdays though. I've heard it was insane for USC when they were dominant but even in the past 10 years of "meh" the fans are all over the area on gameday.

Big Ten fans are going to make awesome home game nice weather vacations @UCLA at least for a few years until they get bored of it.

One time somebody did say to me "Isn't that where potatoes come from" and when I told them no they said "yeah but they are next to each other".

CascadeClone said:

Wash/Wazzu - Apple Cup
BYU/Utah - Holy War
Oregon/Ore St
Grambling/Southern
Farmageddon (similar to ISU-UI but with a better name)
WV/Pitt
Iowa/Minny (similar to ISU-UI but with a better trophy)
Minny/Wisky (similar to ISU-UI but with a better trophy)

there's more I am sure

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Notre Dame/Michigan State
Simpson/Central
Souix Falls/Augustana

ISUTex said:

Notre Dame/Michigan State
Simpson/Central
Souix Falls/Augustana

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Coe/Cornell if we're going to go there. Old, old rivalry although I think Coe has won over 20 in a row.

There was a spell in the 90s iirc where it didn't matter how good Coe was, they would lose their minds in that game.

madguy30 said:

Coe/Cornell if we're going to go there. Old, old rivalry although I think Coe has won over 20 in a row.

There was a spell in the 90s iirc where it didn't matter how good Coe was, they would lose their minds in that game.

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Sounds oddly familiar to another team in our state from 2017-now

State2015 said:

Sounds oddly familiar to another team in our state from 2017-now

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Coe would be pretty good while Cornell would be bad in their scenario.

ISU's been decent and Iowa may have been about as consistently solid, especially defensively in that time frame as they've ever been under Ferentz.

CascadeClone said:

Wash/Wazzu - Apple Cup
BYU/Utah - Holy War
Oregon/Ore St
Grambling/Southern
Farmageddon (similar to ISU-UI but with a better name)
WV/Pitt
Iowa/Minny (similar to ISU-UI but with a better trophy)
Minny/Wisky (similar to ISU-UI but with a better trophy)

there's more I am sure

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I live in Washington, and I definitely don’t feel like the Apple Cup is a bigger rivalry than ISU-Iowa. It could be the week of the Apple Cup and unless you were a big fan, you wouldn’t even know it.

Cloneon said:

I always tell people when choosing domain names, choose something that people can remember. CyHawk? It has to be explained. Which is the first dagger in people's interest. Check out some REALLY good names...
Names with Clout

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CyHawk NOT mentioned here, so REALLY NOT very good. IMO

ISUTex said:

Notre Dame/Michigan State
Simpson/Central
Souix Falls/Augustana

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Johnnies/Tommies (St. John's/St. Thomas in Minnesota) RIP

Cycsk said:

For those who have said, it means nothing nationally, please explain why ESPN game day came to Ames.

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Because it’s in Week 2?