America’s breadbasket straddles the Missouri River, with Iowa on the japanese 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, which means 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 finest at cultivating the following 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 biggest rivalry nicknames in sports activities.
As soon as thought-about a derisive moniker, “Farmageddon” has nudged its means into the lexicon of contemporary faculty soccer in a means that belies its threadbare roots. In a new-look Massive 12 scuttled and reformed via realignment, Farmageddon is a relic and a treasure. With growth, groups change conferences and rivalries disintegrate. But Iowa State and Kansas State have present in one another an natural associate and competitor.
“There’s that sense of a rivalry between the 2 colleges, and it’s all the time a battle,” stated 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 powerful. It’s positively a rivalry. I do know us as gamers look ahead to it yearly. And I’m certain Iowa State does as effectively.”
#CyclONEnation followers voted overwhelmingly to start out a trophy with one longtime foe, who ISU has performed yearly since 1917. Iowa state gamers agree.
Ought to Iowa State and Okay-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 collection has soared in significance. For simply the second time of their century-plus competitors, the packages meet as ranked opponents. Saturday night time at Jack Trice Stadium, No. 18 Iowa State (9-2, 6-2 Massive 12) might win a tenth recreation for the primary time at school historical past and qualify for the Massive 12 Championship Sport. No. 24 Kansas State (8-3, 5-3) might smash the celebration in Ames and maybe sneak into the title recreation itself.
“We’ve had the sport circled,” Kansas State tight finish Will Swanson advised reporters.
Humble beginnings
For generations, the Kansas State and Iowa State soccer groups sat like unfastened nails on a picket fence ready for the hammer to pound them into place. From the beginning of the Massive Six Convention in 1928 via the completion of the Massive 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 residence 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 Massive 12 championships. Snyder, a Faculty 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 recreation of their first 93 years. Snyder took them to twenty.
“While you take a look at each packages, their histories are very related,” stated Jeff Woody, a working again at Iowa State from 2009-13. “Kansas State simply got here out of it sooner. Kansas State, earlier than Invoice Snyder obtained there, was terrible, and Iowa State was terrible till (Dan) McCarney obtained there.”
Iowa State had just a few peaks underneath McCarney, however the Cyclones had been effectively behind their foes 350 miles to the southwest. For 90 years, it was much less a rivalry than only a collection between two related establishments that merely performed yearly.
“They’d a fantastic run underneath coach Snyder, and in some methods, they had been the gold customary of what possibly Iowa State form of aspired to do,” stated 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 take a look at Okay-State as a program. They received Massive 12 championships. They performed within the Cotton Bowl. They did some issues that Iowa State wish to do. Fairly frankly, with coach (Chris) Klieman there proper now, in some methods the trail to the place we wish to go form of goes via them.”
Farmageddon
In 2007, Kansas and Missouri performed a top-five matchup at Arrowhead Stadium. The stands had 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.
“Okay-State was prepared, as we had been prepared, to every hand over a house recreation, so we did the two-year deal,” Pollard stated. “It was an excellent one-off alternative that allowed us to go to the Kansas Metropolis market, which is a giant marketplace for us.”
Earlier than the primary recreation in 2009, a Kansas State fan web site coined the phrase “Farmageddom.” It caught on shortly and appeared in newspapers and different media retailers. At first, many followers and supporters thought-about the time period cringeworthy and cliche. The nickname, nevertheless, gathered momentum and caught regardless of the collection transferring again to campuses in 2011.
Concurrently, the Massive 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 Massive Ten and Pac-10, respectively. The following yr, Missouri and Texas A&M bolted for the SEC. Every time, Iowa State and Kansas State had been left twisting on the whims of their higher-profile colleagues. Amid the chaos, a bond fashioned.
“I used to be in faculty for the primary spherical of realignment, and Kansas State was additionally a type of afterthought colleges,” Woody stated. “And also you go, ‘Nicely, the place can we go?’ Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Iowa State and Texas Tech had been the land-grant colleges. Nobody expects as a lot from us. It’s type of a sibling rivalry that I can combat you and you’ll combat me, and we will 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 greater. When each colleges had been ranked in 2002, it was midseason, and Okay-State rolled previous Iowa State 58-7. Now, it’s the season finale and each groups nonetheless harbor Massive 12 title hopes.
Ought to the Cyclones win, they’re virtually sure to seem within the title recreation for the second time, barring a three-way tie and an advanced tiebreaker. However the percentages are low, and coach Matt Campbell stated Tuesday it’s not one thing that issues him.
Kansas State, which received the Massive 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, nevertheless.
Final yr, 6 inches of snow fell through the Cyclones’ 42-35 win in Manhattan. In a recreation dubbed “Snowmageddon,” Iowa State working 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 as if it’s a chilly recreation or snowy recreation or one thing like that,” Mott stated. “It’s all the time an excellent brawl and battle. Final yr, they got here all the way down to Manhattan. It was a snowy recreation, and it was our senior night time, and we didn’t actually have the sport that we wished to have. So, we’re an actual hungry crew.”
For the reason that time period Farmageddon was utilized to this collection, uncommon conditions and environment have decided the result. Within the first Arrowhead recreation, Iowa State missed an additional level in a 24-23 Kansas State win. From 2014 via 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 objective. Rhoads was fired the following 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 via 2007. Klieman changed Snyder in 2019 and is 2-3 in opposition to the Cyclones. The packages are constructed with the identical ideas with growth at their core. Iowa State leads the collection all-time, 53-50-4.
“Each soccer groups play a method that their fan bases actually embrace,” Kansas State athletic director Gene Taylor stated. “They’re related in loads of methods, simply hard-nosed children from small-town Iowa, small-town Kansas. They only exit and actually play good, onerous, stable soccer.”
Future
There’s little likelihood 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 recreation in Dublin, met with Iowa State and Kansas State to think about enjoying a recreation there. Iowa State will host solely 4 Massive 12 video games in 2025, so it declined. Taylor thought Klieman would do the identical however requested his coach to analysis the proposal.
“I stated, ‘There’s no means Klieman is transferring the Iowa State recreation to a impartial web site in Eire,’” Taylor stated. “Chris got here all the way down to my workplace and stated, ‘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 Massive 12, during 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 recreation.
“There have been loads of adjustments,” Taylor stated. “We in all probability haven’t had an opportunity to essentially decelerate and check out an possibility like that. However I feel it’s worthy of debate sooner or later. And say possibly we do rotate — not only one crew a yr that you simply play yearly, possibly it’s two or three groups. How can we maintain Iowa State for us and Kansas and rotate all people else?”
Reminder: Farmageddon just isn’t formally acknowledged as a rivalry by @CycloneATH @kstatesports or the @Big12Conference
Looks like nearly as good of time as ever seeing as the following two matchups embody:
-Championship and Playoff implications
-Worldwide stand-alone recreation
— 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 grow to be 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 stated. “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 respect it for what it’s. It’s not possible to not see the similarities between the packages.”
“It’s form of that battle of the farmers,” Mott stated. “I feel it’s cool it’s obtained this nickname. It simply provides to the rivalry.”
(Photograph: Scott Winters / Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Pictures)