Not your daddy’s Cyclones
Simply put, Saturday’s Big 12 Conference Championship Game showdown with Oklahoma is the biggest game in the history of Iowa State football.
Of course, Iowa State football doesn’t have just a whole lot of history.
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This will be the third year Iowa State finishes a season ranked in the AP Poll (it will be OU’s 59th, one behind Michigan’s record). The Cyclones have two conference championships, both shared (OU leads the nation with 49). ISU has a total of four bowl victories all time (OU has 29). The program has averaged just 4.2 wins per year (OU has averaged 7.3).
The OU-ISU series is the most lopsided in all of major college football, with the Sooners owning a .906 winning percentage (76-7-2).
If Oklahoma wins Saturday, the Sooners will have more Big 12 Conference championships in the last 20 years (14) than Iowa State has had winning seasons in the last 40 (13).
Another title would be the Sooners’ sixth in a row. That includes four conference title game victories since the event was rebooted in 2017 (all four of Lincoln Riley’s seasons as head coach). The Sooners would be 11-1 in Big 12 title games all-time with another win. Although this oddest of seasons fizzled early, being able to add a 50th conference championship to the wall would be quite the accomplishment.
“It means a lot,” Riley said. “I came in here on the ground floor of that. I remember at the time coming in not totally knowing the rest of the league and all of that as well as I did. But I remember thinking that it’s going to be a big climb to go get one of these right now. We were able to do it that first year with coach Stoops leading the way and we’ve been able to get on a pretty good run since then.
“I do take pride in it. Certainly, it’s a huge accomplishment. I mean, there’s a reason why it hasn’t happened in major college football very often. It’s just so hard to do and do it that consistently. I guess just consistently putting yourself in those opportunities where you’ve got a chance to be good enough to be in that game and to win those games and have those opportunities for championships and playoff and national championships and all that, to me, you just always want to be in the picture. And we’ve been able to do it with different teams a lot of different ways, different strengths. So no, it is (big).
“And then I just think coaching here, you just love being in these games. These games are awesome, man. You don’t even know you’re going to get them and there’s not a guarantee in any year that you’re going to get this game and the opportunity that comes along with it. So I love them. I really relish these kind of games. It certainly means a lot.”
Now finishing up his fifth season in Ames, Iowa State coach Matt Campbell has gotten his team to believe they can win — and not just seven or eight games every once in a while, but the whole Big 12 Conference and, at No. 6 in the College Football Playoff rankings, maybe a whole lot more.
That’s one reason why Campbell is 2-2 against Riley, while Riley is 32-3 against everyone else.
“I just think it’s more proof,” Campbell said, “that when you’ve got people who are aligned to a vision, when you have people who are in it for the right reason and you have people who are willing to put their ego aside and are willing to grow, that’s the beauty of the sport of football. It is still a team sport, it’s not individual. Great things can really occur when that happens.
“There have been great examples in the history of college football of that occurring. It just so happens that it hasn’t happened yet in Ames, Iowa. I think that’s something that has been enjoyable is that you’ve created at least a sense of belief here that great things can happen with the football program. That’s what I’m really proud of our kids with having the ability to do and become.”
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