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ISU Football Rivalries

I have always viewed Baylor as a rival:

- Loser has typically finished as "cellar-deweller" of the conference

- Winner earns an elusive conference win, which usually means that team is anywhere from 2-4 wins away from bowl eligibility

- Historically, it's the only conference game in which ISU is favored, putting the Cyclones in the unfamiliar territiory of not playing as the underdog.

- This has proven to be an even match-up as the all-time series is 5-4 in favor of ISU

- Baylor achieved their first conference road victory in Ames

Now that the series will be an annual affair and the toughness of the conference schedule increases, Baylor is now one of the biggest games for the Cyclones will be one of the front-runners for our newest rivalry game.
 
Al_4_State said:
Did we play Baylor a few times before the Big 12 formed? I thought we were 5-2 against them in conference play.
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The first thing I could find was an article from 2008:

BAYLOR-IOWA STATE SERIES
Saturday is the eighth meeting between Baylor and Iowa State in football, the seventh as Big 12 Conference opponents. The first meeting was a 35-0 Baylor victory at Ames, Iowa, in 1988. The Bears also won the first meeting as Big 12 foes, a 49-21 decision Oct. 26, 1996, in Waco. However, the Cyclones have won the next four meetings: 24-17 at Ames in 1997, 31-17 at Floyd Casey Stadium in 2000, 41-0 at Ames in 2001 and 26-25 at Floyd Casey Stadium in 2004. The Bears snapped that streak with a 23-13 victory at Ames in 2005. Baylor has played Iowa State fewer times than any other Big 12 team.


Series: Iowa State leads 4-3

Waco: Iowa State leads 2-1
Ames: tied 2-2
Neutral: Never Met
First Meeting: Baylor 35-0 [Sept. 17, 1988]
Last Meeting: Baylor 23-13 [Oct. 8, 2005]
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Bears Conclude Home Stand vs. Iowa State - Baylor Bears Official Athletic Site - BaylorBears.com

Baylor won the game in 2008 & ISU won in 2009, which should put the record at 5-4
 
3GenClone said:
The first thing I could find was an article from 2008:



Bears Conclude Home Stand vs. Iowa State - Baylor Bears Official Athletic Site - BaylorBears.com

Baylor won the game in 2008 & ISU won in 2009, which should put the record at 5-4
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For some reason I thought that 2005 was the first time we lost to them in Big 12 play. Guess not.

I would rather get beat by Iowa 5 times in a row than lose to UNI just once.
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Agree. Maybe even more. Losing to UNI was the single worst time in Jack Trice I've ever had. Only the narrow win over them the year before was worse.
 
Al_4_State said:
For some reason I thought that 2005 was the first time we lost to them in Big 12 play. Guess not.
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You are right about that - the Big 12 didn't exist in 1988 when Baylor-ISU first met, so the game would be considered a non-conference win for Baylor.

Edit: NM, Al_4, I thought you were talking about road wins - not overall wins
 
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#1 Iowa - no further discussion needed
#2 Missouri - this is the rivalry that I "feel". Living in KC, I find that most MU fans are D-bags and thus easy to hate. While they have gotten the better of us recently the series is pretty even over the last couple of decades (12-11 MU). It's also a been a good rivalry in basketball.

K-state - I know that the conference is trying to set this up as a rivaly, and I like the Farmageddon tag, but I LIKE K-state. Their fans are great and the universities are so similar. The campus even feel a little alike (although ISU has way better architecture). I find it difficult to have a rivalry with a team I like. We have a pretty even record historically, but I just don't FEEL it. Also, with the exception of the last couple of years, I don't feel like they have been a basketball rival either.
 
If anyone thinks of #1 is any team but Iowa you must be kidding me. An In-State game with another D1 team will always top the others.
 
These are entirely my guidelines, but it may shed some light on which teams qualify as an ISU rival.

A big rivalry should meet most of the following criteria:

1. Tradition. The series should be every year, close to it, for at least a decade — preferably longer, unless it quickly gains national ramifications.

2. Competitive balance. The series results should not be lopsided, overall.

3. Proximity. Close geographically (which would include in-state games) and/or intra-conference matchups that may or may not involve geography (Iowa-Minnesota is example of former; Nebraska-OU the latter). Notre Dame-USC is exception to this one.

4. Anchored scheduling. Not essential, but games that are usually played on the same weekend each season develop more "identity." (Feeds into Rule 1).

5. Mutual relevance. Also not essential, but it helps if each team is considers the other as its nearest rival; also, one team cannot clearly consider it a bigger game than the other.

Some of those could have more weight than others and balance it.

Potential ISU rivals:
Iowa: Meets 1, 3 and (mostly) 4. Weak on No. 2, but the 15-game skid didn't help. Iowa fans like to argue against No. 5, but other than Minnesota, Iowa's only other true rival is ISU (and this isn't the same as saying Iowa-ISU has to be the "biggest" or most important game — just the biggest rivaley)
KSU: Meets 1, 2, somewhat 3, 4 only recently (and with new Big 12 rotation), iffy on 5.
Missouri: Meets 1 and 3, fails on 2, 4 & 5 (KU will probably always be Mizzou's No. 1 rival)
Kansas: Fails 4 & 5, and is a stretch on others.
UNI: Meets only 3.

I'm sure people can find tons of exceptions, nationally, to this, but it works for me. :smile:
 
Iowa is our only Rival. K-State could become one. We lost one in Nebraska, but I think it would have an even bigger rival feel too it if we played them in a Bowl game now.
 
Iowa is by far the biggest rivalry. A yearly non-con game that is for the most part competitive is for sure a rivalry.

The fact that you can "throw rankings out the door" in this game makes the rivalry even stronger. What I mean is the fact that ISU has played the role of spoiler and beaten some pretty good Iowa teams for sure makes this a rivalry.

The overall record is a bit lopsided due to the 15 game streak that Iowa rolled up in the 80's and 90's. Since ISU broke the streak (and went on a mini run of their own) most of the games have at least been competitive making the games more emotional.

Outside of Iowa I would agree that K-State is probably the next in line. Similar programs as of late and both trying to rebuild at the same time making that game a big game each year.
 
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I only consider Iowa as a true Rival. I wish we could get a rivalry developed with KSU though. We are just very similar. Nebraska was close and I think it was well on its way, but now that is ended. Missouri has just never really gotten to be a rivalry. We have played a lot but for some reason it hasn't gotten ugly. I don't ever want to see UNI attached to a football rivalry game again. That's ridiculous and if it's ever to that point, we just as well join CUSA.

Basically, I'm not going to go the way of the Hawkeyes in thinking everyone is our Rival. With the new B12 I do believe some things will develop.
 
cyclones500 said:
These are entirely my guidelines, but it may shed some light on which teams qualify as an ISU rival.

A big rivalry should meet most of the following criteria:

1. Tradition. The series should be every year, close to it, for at least a decade — preferably longer, unless it quickly gains national ramifications.

2. Competitive balance. The series results should not be lopsided, overall.

3. Proximity. Close geographically (which would include in-state games) and/or intra-conference matchups that may or may not involve geography (Iowa-Minnesota is example of former; Nebraska-OU the latter). Notre Dame-USC is exception to this one.

4. Anchored scheduling. Not essential, but games that are usually played on the same weekend each season develop more "identity." (Feeds into Rule 1).

5. Mutual relevance. Also not essential, but it helps if each team is considers the other as its nearest rival; also, one team cannot clearly consider it a bigger game than the other.

Some of those could have more weight than others and balance it.

Potential ISU rivals:
Iowa: Meets 1, 3 and (mostly) 4. Weak on No. 2, but the 15-game skid didn't help. Iowa fans like to argue against No. 5, but other than Minnesota, Iowa's only other true rival is ISU (and this isn't the same as saying Iowa-ISU has to be the "biggest" or most important game — just the biggest rivaley)
KSU: Meets 1, 2, somewhat 3, 4 only recently (and with new Big 12 rotation), iffy on 5.
Missouri: Meets 1 and 3, fails on 2, 4 & 5 (KU will probably always be Mizzou's No. 1 rival)
Kansas: Fails 4 & 5, and is a stretch on others.
UNI: Meets only 3.

I'm sure people can find tons of exceptions, nationally, to this, but it works for me. :smile:
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I don't really disagree with you, but there is another factor. Desire. I suppose it kinda falls under #5, but I think it expands upon it. Not so much has to do with the game itself, but more the desire to win. There are some schools we want to beat worse than others. Sometimes we can't explain why, just that we want to.

As far as desire, I would say that Iowa ranks at the top of the list, and the feeling is reciprocated. From there I really don't know where to go. I can't say that Missouri wants to beat us more than other conference schools. I can't say that about KSU either.

Is there one school in the conference that wants to beat ISU more than the other 7 or 8 on their schedule? Also, how does the rivalry fare in other sports? Can you have just a one sport rivalry?
 
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cyclones500 said:
These are entirely my guidelines, but it may shed some light on which teams qualify as an ISU rival.

A big rivalry should meet most of the following criteria:

1. Tradition. The series should be every year, close to it, for at least a decade — preferably longer, unless it quickly gains national ramifications.

2. Competitive balance. The series results should not be lopsided, overall.

3. Proximity. Close geographically (which would include in-state games) and/or intra-conference matchups that may or may not involve geography (Iowa-Minnesota is example of former; Nebraska-OU the latter). Notre Dame-USC is exception to this one.

4. Anchored scheduling. Not essential, but games that are usually played on the same weekend each season develop more "identity." (Feeds into Rule 1).

5. Mutual relevance. Also not essential, but it helps if each team is considers the other as its nearest rival; also, one team cannot clearly consider it a bigger game than the other.

Some of those could have more weight than others and balance it.

Potential ISU rivals:
Iowa: Meets 1, 3 and (mostly) 4. Weak on No. 2, but the 15-game skid didn't help. Iowa fans like to argue against No. 5, but other than Minnesota, Iowa's only other true rival is ISU (and this isn't the same as saying Iowa-ISU has to be the "biggest" or most important game — just the biggest rivaley)
KSU: Meets 1, 2, somewhat 3, 4 only recently (and with new Big 12 rotation), iffy on 5.
Missouri: Meets 1 and 3, fails on 2, 4 & 5 (KU will probably always be Mizzou's No. 1 rival)
Kansas: Fails 4 & 5, and is a stretch on others.
UNI: Meets only 3.

I'm sure people can find tons of exceptions, nationally, to this, but it works for me. :smile:
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As a Hawkeye fan I couldn’t disagree more with Minnesota being a big rivalry game. They actually only meet 2 of your requirements because with the exception of last year it’s been a very lop sided affair for the past 20 or 30 years. Iowa’s biggest rivalry is Wisconsin without question. That game meets every one of your criteria except one and that is being an anchor game played the same time every year, but that will change once the Big Ten goes to a 9 game schedule. I would rank Iowa’s biggest rivalry in this order.
1) Iowa /Wisconsin overall record are 41-41-1 and they have played each other for over 100 years.
2) This one is tough right now I would say it is ISU but that will change once Iowa starts playing Nebraska
3) Nebraska I only say this because you can’t be considered rivals until you start playing each other regularly but this game is set up perfectly to become one of the biggest in college football. We haven’t even played them yet and I already can feel my hatred for them growing every day and a loss to them next fall will be a very bitter pill to swallow.
 
MissouriFan said:
For what it's worth here are the teams you all have played the most.

School - Number of times played
Nebraska - 105
Missouri - 103
Kansas St. - 94
Kansas - 90
Oklahoma - 75
Drake - 69
Colorado - 65
Iowa - 58
Oklahoma St. - 45
Grinnell - 33
Minnesota/Northern Iowa - 26

Good website for college football info
Iowa State vs Conferences
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Thanks for the link and good info. The Iowa game would have had 34 additional games, but some folks that it was appropriate to drop the series until it resumed in 1977 (I was at the game :spinny:).

How ironic Iowa leads the list as our top rival, but there's a large (and growing) faction of 'Clones who want to drop the series because our schedule is too difficult for the team to qualify for a 6-6 season bowl game.....
 
So with all of the KSU/Farmageddeon talk, what's the tailgating scene/game day atmosphere in Manhattan like? Anyone been down there? I know I'm seriously considering the trip down for the game this year, if only to get the hell out of Iowa City. Plus, the more people are attending the KSU/ISU games from both fan bases, I think that will build that relationship further. For example, while I agree that we never had a true rivalry with Nebraska, their locust-like invasion of Ames every other year made it seem like a rivalry game in many respects.
 
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