“Farmageddon” has never been bigger.
The rivalry between No. 24 Kansas State and No. 18 Iowa State has one of the longest winning streaks in college football. The two schools have played each other every year since 1917, making this the 108th consecutive season and the eighth longest unbroken streak in the FBS.
The Wildcats travel to Ames, Iowa, on Saturday with a lot on the line for both teams.
Kansas State still has a slim chance of reaching the Big 12 Championship Game and a possible spot in the College Football Playoff. The Cyclones have an even better shot at the conference tournament.
State (8-3, 5-3 Big 12) is coming off a convincing 41-15 win over Cincinnati. They need a win on Saturday and a combination of several other results to make that league title game a success.
To reach the title game, Iowa State (9-2, 6-2) needs a little help. The Cyclones need to win and lose to two of the other three teams on the road at 6-2 in league play: Arizona State, BYU and Colorado.
“I’m really excited about this week, getting a chance to play Iowa State,” Kansas State coach Chris Klieman said Monday. “It will be a good place, a good atmosphere. The game has meaning.
“Going back and looking at the film, I thought our guys played well in every phase. Getting off to a fast start was important.”
Kansas State fans mourned back-to-back losses earlier this month in Houston and at home to Arizona State. With just one of those going the way of the Wildcats, they would control their own destiny. But Klieman and his team are proud of the consistency the Cats have shown by winning at least eight games in the last four seasons.
“It’s hard to win college football games,” Klieman said. “It’s expected, and you want to win every game. (But) it’s hard to win. The stability and success that our staff has brought here says a lot about the players they brought here and the men who lead these guys.”
Iowa State has won four of the last six games in the series after ending Kansas State’s 10-year hitting streak. Iowa State leads 53-50-4 in the all-time series.
Iowa State is looking to reach 10 wins for the first time in the program’s 133-year history. They won nine games for the fourth time, but only the second time (1906) that they did it before a bowl game. Ironically, Iowa State last won a conference championship in 1912 when the Cyclones captured their second straight Missouri Valley title.
Now, the opportunity to change that equation is there for the taking. But head coach Matt Campbell isn’t looking at Kansas State. In fact, he said at his press conference on Tuesday that he wasn’t even looking at tiebreakers.
“That’s a question for a smart football coach,” he said. “I don’t have a lot of wisdom about that. What I believe is that if our football team takes care of us, we will put ourselves in a good position to succeed. We will tell our story at the end of the season.”
–Field Level Media
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