I wonder where the Super Bowl thinking came from, oh here ya go:
The biggest thing that he did was he made it important. He made it the No. 1 goal on the goal board — to beat Iowa,” said former ISU tight end Kyle Knock, who red-shirted in 1998 and played from 1999-2003. “The reason was, it’s in-state. Two, it involved a trophy. He wanted to have something to be able to put in the trophy case and say we earned that. So it started off as that. Then each year it became bigger and bigger because once we won, then it was win another one. Don’t be the team that loses one.”
http://www.thegazette.com/subject/sports/4-cy-hawk-myths-isus-super-bowl-20140909
Must just be a crazy coincidence that ISU started beating Iowa after McCarney made it the #1 goal of the program.