FORT DODGE — One of Iowa’s beloved annual traditions, the Cy-Hawk football game, is approaching the end of its contracted deal through 2027.
While there is no set extension beyond that, Iowa State athletics director Jamie Pollard said there is interest on both sides to keep the tradition going.
Before putting pen to paper and locking in terms and dates, Iowa and Iowa State are waiting on a decision from the FBS Oversight Committee that may impact scheduling for future college football seasons.
“(Iowa athletics director) Beth (Goetz) and I have talked about (a Cy-Hawk extension), we’re waiting to see how the new football oversight committee decides about Week 0, because that could determine whether — we traditionally have always played that in Week 2, and if we now have a Week 0, are we all going to have to rearrange all our schedules?” Pollard said. “So, we had an initial discussion about it and just kind of waited just to see how that gets decided here this summer about when and if they go to Week 0.”
In April, the FBS Oversight Committee proposed standardizing the first game of the season across the board, beginning with the 2027 campaign. Under this proposal, starting in 2027, the regular season at the FBS level would become 14 weeks and teams could schedule 12 games.
Unlike the current model, where some teams have Week 0 games and others don’t, the season for all FBS teams would begin on what is now designated as Week 0. The proposal also recommends the final week of the regular season to take place on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
The NCAA Division I Cabinet would have to vote for the proposal to become official. Discussions for the proposed recommendation are slated to begin in June.
While both parties are interested in extending the Cy-Hawk game, for now the Cyclones and Hawkeyes are waiting to see what the Division I Cabinet decides.
“It’s both of our intents, as long as there isn’t anything that changes national scheduling, that our intent was to (extend) it, but we just didn’t do anything with that discussion because we’re waiting to see what happens,” Pollard said. “That could trigger a — when do you do it? Is Week 2 (Cy-Hawk game) become Week 3? We just got to think that through.”
The previous two extensions for the Cy-Hawk series came four years in advance. In 2022, there was a two-year extension to guarantee matchups in 2026 and 2027.
Before that, the 2019 extension brought games in 2024 and 2025.
The last two contracted matchups on the current deal are scheduled for Sept. 12, 2026 in Iowa City, and then Sept. 11, 2027 in Ames.
Iowa State has won each of the last two meetings in the rivalry series, and three of the last four. Iowa leads the all-time series, 46-25. Its 2023 win over the Cyclones was vacated by the NCAA due to a recruiting violation.
The first meeting of the series took place in 1894. Between 1920 and 1977, the two teams met only twice (1933 and 1934), but after a four-decade hiatus was broken in 1977, the Cy-Hawk game has taken place each year with the exception of the COVID-impacted 2020 contest.
While future Cy-Hawk games may be on a different week than usual, Iowa State and Iowa are hoping to lock in an extension and sift through logistical challenges once a ruling comes from the NCAA Division I Cabinet.
“A little bit will depend on the ruling, how that gets decided for when and then what the schools want to do, because it isn’t a simple move,” Pollard said. “You have all these schedules set up and ideally, you’d like to move your current Week 1 to Week 0, and then your Week 2 to another week, but do people have other games they’ve already scheduled? So that’ll be a complicated puzzle to put together.”
Eugene Rapay covers Iowa State athletics for the Des Moines Register. Contact Eugene at erapay@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @erapay5.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa State, Iowa wait on NCAA decision before extending Cy-Hawk game
Reporting by Eugene Rapay, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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