America’s breadbasket straddles the Missouri River, with Iowa on the jap slope and Kansas burying a knee in its again from the southwest. The river’s thick, muddy waters and numerous tributaries irrigate the world’s most fertile farmland. In Iowa, meaning corn, hogs and even turkeys. In Kansas, that’s winter wheat, sorghum and cattle.
Agriculture dictates enterprise in each states, and their land-grant establishments are among the many nation’s greatest at cultivating the subsequent crop of farmers. It has led Iowa State and Kansas State to forge shut ties, and that cooperation spills over to competitors in athletics. It additionally helped launch one of many best rivalry nicknames in sports activities.
As soon as thought-about a derisive moniker, “Farmageddon” has nudged its manner into the lexicon of contemporary faculty soccer in a manner that belies its threadbare roots. In a new-look Large 12 scuttled and reformed by means of realignment, Farmageddon is a relic and a treasure. With enlargement, groups change conferences and rivalries disintegrate. But Iowa State and Kansas State have present in one another an natural accomplice and competitor.
“There’s that sense of a rivalry between the 2 colleges, and it’s all the time a battle,” mentioned Kansas State defensive finish Brendan Mott, who grew up in Iowa Metropolis, Iowa. “It’s tremendous bodily up entrance. The circumstances are all the time robust. It’s positively a rivalry. I do know us as gamers stay up for it yearly. And I’m certain Iowa State does as effectively.”
#CyclONEnation followers voted overwhelmingly to begin a trophy with one longtime foe, who ISU has performed yearly since 1917. Iowa state gamers agree.
Ought to Iowa State and Ok-State meet for ‘The Reaper,’ because the Paul Bunyan’s Axe of the Plains?
Our story:https://t.co/cJl9LJM2Kd pic.twitter.com/fXo07uOXUs— Scott Dochterman (@ScottDochterman) August 16, 2022
Farmageddon has by no means meant extra to the contestants, followers or faculty soccer, and the sequence has soared in significance. For simply the second time of their century-plus competitors, the packages meet as ranked opponents. Saturday evening at Jack Trice Stadium, No. 18 Iowa State (9-2, 6-2 Large 12) might win a tenth sport for the primary time at school historical past and qualify for the Large 12 Championship Recreation. No. 24 Kansas State (8-3, 5-3) might break the celebration in Ames and maybe sneak into the title sport itself.
“We’ve had the sport circled,” Kansas State tight finish Will Swanson instructed reporters.
Humble beginnings
For generations, the Kansas State and Iowa State soccer groups sat like free nails on a picket fence ready for the hammer to pound them into place. From the beginning of the Large Six Convention in 1928 by means of the completion of the Large Eight in 1995, both the Cyclones or the Wildcats completed in final place 54 occasions in 68 seasons. In 1989 and 1991, Kansas State moved its dwelling video games with Oklahoma to Norman so each squads might generate extra income.
Then got here the Manhattan Miracle led by Invoice Snyder. In maybe the best turnaround in faculty soccer historical past, Snyder took a program teetering towards shifting to a decrease division and received a number of Large 12 championships. Snyder, a School Soccer Corridor of Fame inductee, was 215-117-1 in 27 seasons with 5 top-10 finishes. The Wildcats had participated in a single bowl sport of their first 93 years. Snyder took them to twenty.
“Whenever you have a look at each packages, their histories are very related,” mentioned Jeff Woody, a operating again at Iowa State from 2009-13. “Kansas State simply got here out of it sooner. Kansas State, earlier than Invoice Snyder bought there, was terrible, and Iowa State was terrible till (Dan) McCarney bought there.”
Iowa State had a number of peaks beneath McCarney, however the Cyclones have been effectively behind their foes 350 miles to the southwest. For 90 years, it was much less a rivalry than only a sequence between two related establishments that merely performed yearly.
“They’d a fantastic run beneath coach Snyder, and in some methods, they have been the gold normal of what perhaps Iowa State sort of aspired to do,” mentioned Iowa State’s Jamie Pollard, who ranks third in longevity amongst Energy 4 athletic administrators. “Their institutional composition, their make-up, their historical past, is extra like us than not.
“You have a look at Ok-State as a program. They received Large 12 championships. They performed within the Cotton Bowl. They did some issues that Iowa State want to do. Fairly frankly, with coach (Chris) Klieman there proper now, in some methods the trail to the place we need to go sort of goes by means of them.”
Farmageddon
In 2007, Kansas and Missouri performed a top-five matchup at Arrowhead Stadium. The stands have been full and feisty, the sport a rousing success. Kansas Metropolis Chiefs brass then reached out to a number of colleges to gauge curiosity in staging future video games.
“Ok-State was keen, as we have been keen, to every quit a house sport, so we did the two-year deal,” Pollard mentioned. “It was a very good one-off alternative that allowed us to go to the Kansas Metropolis market, which is a giant marketplace for us.”
Earlier than the primary sport in 2009, a Kansas State fan web site coined the phrase “Farmageddom.” It caught on shortly and appeared in newspapers and different media shops. At first, many followers and supporters thought-about the time period cringeworthy and cliche. The nickname, nonetheless, gathered momentum and caught regardless of the sequence transferring again to campuses in 2011.
Concurrently, the Large 12 was amid a radical realignment. In a number of years, there have been heavy discussions about six colleges — together with Texas and Oklahoma — becoming a member of the Pac-10. After the 2010 season, Nebraska and Colorado left for the Large Ten and Pac-10, respectively. The subsequent yr, Missouri and Texas A&M bolted for the SEC. Every time, Iowa State and Kansas State have been left twisting on the whims of their higher-profile colleagues. Amid the chaos, a bond shaped.
“I used to be in faculty for the primary spherical of realignment, and Kansas State was additionally a type of afterthought colleges,” Woody mentioned. “And also you go, ‘Effectively, the place can we go?’ Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Iowa State and Texas Tech have been the land-grant colleges. Nobody expects as a lot from us. It’s kind of a sibling rivalry that I can struggle you and you’ll struggle me, and we are able to hate one another, however nobody else is allowed to hate us.”
New period
Saturday marks the 108th consecutive season the Wildcats and Cyclones face off, however the stakes by no means have been larger. When each colleges have been ranked in 2002, it was midseason, and Ok-State rolled previous Iowa State 58-7. Now, it’s the season finale and each groups nonetheless harbor Large 12 title hopes.
Ought to the Cyclones win, they’re virtually sure to look within the title sport for the second time, barring a three-way tie and a sophisticated tiebreaker. However the percentages are low, and coach Matt Campbell mentioned Tuesday it’s not one thing that considerations him.
Kansas State, which received the Large 12 title two seasons in the past, should win and get assist to make one other title look. The lengthy odds don’t detract from the sport’s significance, nonetheless.
Final yr, 6 inches of snow fell through the Cyclones’ 42-35 win in Manhattan. In a sport dubbed “Snowmageddon,” Iowa State operating again Abu Sama III rushed for 276 yards and three touchdowns. For Saturday’s prime-time kickoff, temperatures are anticipated to fall into the only digits.
“It all the time looks like it’s a chilly sport or snowy sport or one thing like that,” Mott mentioned. “It’s all the time a very good brawl and battle. Final yr, they got here all the way down to Manhattan. It was a snowy sport, and it was our senior evening, and we didn’t actually have the sport that we needed to have. So, we’re an actual hungry workforce.”
Because the time period Farmageddon was utilized to this sequence, uncommon conditions and environment have decided the result. Within the first Arrowhead sport, Iowa State missed an additional level in a 24-23 Kansas State win. From 2014 by means of 2017, the Wildcats received 4 straight by 5 factors or fewer. In 2015, Iowa State led by a landing with the ball and 1:31 left. All of the Cyclones wanted to do was kneel for the victory as a result of Kansas State had only one timeout remaining.
As a substitute, Cyclones coach Paul Rhoads selected to run the ball on first down. The again fumbled, and Kansas State tied the rating with a landing 4 performs later. A strip-sack with 10 seconds left led to Kansas State’s game-winning area purpose. Rhoads was fired the subsequent day.
I am intrigued by what @ChrisMWilliams thinks about this. Since Mizzou left for the SEC a decade in the past, Iowa State is all the way down to a single touring trophy. Is it time so as to add one other? If that’s the case, which college?
— Scott Dochterman (@ScottDochterman) August 14, 2022
Campbell’s arrival in 2016 has escalated the stakes. He’s 4-4 in opposition to Kansas State, which matches the variety of Cyclone wins in opposition to Kansas State from 1999 by means of 2007. Klieman changed Snyder in 2019 and is 2-3 in opposition to the Cyclones. The packages are constructed with the identical rules with improvement at their core. Iowa State leads the sequence all-time, 53-50-4.
“Each soccer groups play a mode that their fan bases actually embrace,” Kansas State athletic director Gene Taylor mentioned. “They’re related in numerous methods, simply hard-nosed children from small-town Iowa, small-town Kansas. They simply exit and actually play good, laborious, stable soccer.”
Future
There’s little probability of snow or below-zero temperatures for subsequent yr’s Farmageddon. Kansas State shifted the sport to Eire, and it’ll happen in Week 0. Aer Lingus, which operates an annual sport in Dublin, met with Iowa State and Kansas State to think about taking part in a sport there. Iowa State will host solely 4 Large 12 video games in 2025, so it declined. Taylor thought Klieman would do the identical however requested his coach to analysis the proposal.
“I mentioned, ‘There’s no manner Klieman is transferring the Iowa State sport to a impartial web site in Eire,’” Taylor mentioned. “Chris got here all the way down to my workplace and mentioned, ‘Let’s do it.’ I used to be shocked, actually, due to the significance of the sport.”
One other change is on the horizon, one which has agitated the fan bases. Within the 16-team Large 12, through which eight new members have joined within the final two seasons, solely 4 rivalries (all in-state) are protected yearly. Farmageddon is slated to cycle off the schedule in 2027. There aren’t any plans for the colleges to fulfill in a nonconference sport.
“There have been numerous adjustments,” Taylor mentioned. “We most likely haven’t had an opportunity to actually decelerate and try an choice like that. However I believe it’s worthy of dialogue sooner or later. And say perhaps we do rotate — not only one workforce a yr that you simply play yearly, perhaps it’s two or three groups. How can we maintain Iowa State for us and Kansas and rotate everyone else?”
Reminder: Farmageddon shouldn’t be formally acknowledged as a rivalry by @CycloneATH @kstatesports or the @Big12Conference
Looks like pretty much as good of time as ever seeing as the subsequent two matchups embody:
-Championship and Playoff implications
-Worldwide stand-alone sport
— Jack Trice Mafia (@JackTriceMafia) November 24, 2024
As soon as an afterthought, Farmageddon now resonates as an genuine rivalry formed by similarity and substance. Mott, Woody and each athletic administrators acknowledge the opposite has develop into their college’s No. 2 rival, simply behind their in-state foes. It issues emotionally and competitively.
“Ohio State–Michigan have performed one another for endlessly, and that’s like a real hatred,” Woody mentioned. “However the existence of these packages has by no means been threatened, like what occurred to Iowa State and Kansas State. So, recognizing that it virtually fell aside, and there’s this good factor between two related packages that as a result of it virtually fell aside, you recognize it for what it’s. It’s unimaginable to not see the similarities between the packages.”
“It’s sort of that battle of the farmers,” Mott mentioned. “I believe it’s cool it’s bought this nickname. It simply provides to the rivalry.”
(Photograph: Scott Winters / Icon Sportswire through Getty Pictures)
