Inside the state of Iowa, the Cy-Hawk football rivalry unites and divides residents with countless side bets and a year’s worth of bragging rights at stake for fans of both programs.

The road team has taken the two-hour bus trip home victorious in 10 of the last 12 meetings. In that span, the Hawkeyes and Cyclones have each won a 44-41 overtime thriller and a one-point game decided in the final seconds. Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz and Iowa State’s Matt Campbell are the winningest coaches in their programs’ histories. Over the last decade, the teams have combined for five conference championship game appearances — including four in the last five seasons — and 17 bowl invitations.

Despite their competitive similarities and geographic proximity, the programs are far from mirror images. Iowa resides in the Big Ten, a league that has won the last two College Football Playoff titles and brings in the most revenue of any conference. Iowa State plays in the Big 12, a league that preaches parity since losing its most prominent brands to other conferences and pays out less than half of what vested Big Ten members receive.

While the teams prepare for what promises to be another grueling matchup this Saturday, there are questions worth asking in today’s college football world. The current 12-team CFP field provides both schools with more opportunities to reach the Playoff beyond a once-in-a-generation dream season. There’s access for both teams, albeit different paths. When aiming for the CFP, is it better to be Iowa State, which has a clearer path to a Big 12 championship, or Iowa, which faces stiffer on-field competition but has more resources?

“Those things matter, and they matter to football, for sure,” said Bob Bowlsby, the former Big 12 commissioner (2012-22) and Iowa athletic director (1991-2006). “But it’s not easy regardless of where you are.”

In short, the answer is worthy of debate. No official at either school wanted to discuss the challenges facing their competitor based on conversations related to this and other topics over the last six months. But they were open about their advantages and path to success.

The case for Iowa State

Jamie Pollard has elevated Iowa State athletics from a Big 12 bottom-feeder to one of the league’s best-run departments. But his job is as difficult today as it was when he took over 20 years ago. Beginning July 1, athletic departments can share up to $20.5 million with athletes. For Big Ten schools like Iowa — which will receive $82.7 million in media revenue from the Big Ten this year — that’s an expensive line item. For Iowa State, which projects to earn $35.3 million from Big 12 media rights deals, it’s a much more significant expenditure.

Several factors have added to the financial challenges. With seven Big Ten or SEC schools on or inside its state border, Iowa State must share revenue at the highest level or risk a competitive freefall in football. The Big 12 has grown from 10 to 16 members since 2022, and with Oklahoma and Texas now in the SEC, the league’s disbursal dropped by a projected $2.15 million per school from fiscal year 2024 to fiscal year 2025. Due to the CFP’s adjusted revenue distribution pattern and the NCAA payout reductions following the House settlement, Iowa State will use about $26.7 million in reserves to balance its books this year. The athletic department doesn’t have reserves to cover future losses, setting up a projected shortfall of about $24.5 million annually.

Iowa State has risen from the bottom of the Big 12 to an annually competitive program, but financial challenges are on the horizon. (Photo by Matthew Holst / Getty Images)

Beginning with the 2011 fiscal year, the state’s Board of Regents’ policy has demanded Iowa State athletics be financially self-sufficient. This spring, Pollard asked regents and state officials to revisit that edict.

“The Board of Regents has to acknowledge that the 2011 policy can’t exist any longer unless they want us not to be at this level,” Pollard said to 247Sports and other media at a Cyclone Tailgate Tour stop. “Because if you can’t put any institutional funding into athletics, then what are you really saying? So that, to me, has to (change).”

This moment represents a crossroads for ISU athletics, which is an economic driver in central Iowa. Reduced funding has a spillover effect that extends to recruiting and retaining athletes and coaches. Yet the Cyclones’ football success doesn’t all come down to financial prowess, and it’s certainly not all bleak.

“If anybody ever thinks at Iowa State and especially in football, if we’re going to win because we were ever able to pay somebody top dollar, I think that’s fool’s gold,” Campbell said. “Anybody that thinks that’s how it’s going to be successful here, I think you’re going to be sadly disappointed.”

Campbell has built No. 16 Iowa State (2-0) from a program hoping to reach a bowl game to one expecting to compete for championships. Since 2017, only Oklahoma has won more Big 12 games than Iowa State. Last year, the Cyclones set a school record with 11 victories, and their season-opening win against then-No. 17 Kansas State on Aug. 23 in Ireland showed there’s been little drop-off.

The Big 12 has its own challenges, both within and outside its conference. Last year, Iowa State was one of four teams to finish 7-2 in Big 12 play, and that competitive balance grants a team like Arizona State the ability to vault from last in a preseason poll to conference champion. But with its runner-up finishing with three losses after the title game, that parity hurts the league in sending an at-large squad into the CFP. Even with Playoff expansion on the horizon, the Big 12 doesn’t have voting privileges on the next iteration. For a 16-team field, it could involve 11 at-large teams and the Big 12 champion, or the league could receive two automatic bids.

Instead of comparing the Big 12 alongside other conferences, Pollard focuses on boosting revenue and securing CFP inclusion based on his own program’s success.

“I look at it two ways,” Pollard said. “One, there’s the financial competitiveness, and part of that is, ‘OK, they’ve got more resources than we do.’ They’ve set it up in a way, with the CFP that they have, they get a bigger piece of the pie. They’ve got a bigger television contract. So, in a lot of ways, we’re not competing against them. We’re competing against the other schools in the Big 12.

“I don’t get to control the financial part. I don’t get to control the access part, but just tell us what the rules are, and then we’re going to work really hard to try to maximize our ability to achieve, given those rules. If they tell us we get two spots, then I’m not going to spend all my time whining about not having more than two. I’m going to spend all my energies on how we try to make sure Iowa State gets one of those two spots.”

The case for Iowa

Iowa’s financial outlook is much rosier than its in-state rival with a projected $7.45 million raise from the Big Ten this year. The athletic department will need some creative math to reach the $20.5 million revenue sharing cap, but it has no fear of running deficits.

“The opportunities to generate the revenue either directly from the Big Ten or because you are a Big Ten institution, there’s no doubt that that’s an advantage and certainly plays an impactful piece,” Iowa athletic director Beth Goetz said. “I would argue that when there was less discrepancy between the conferences in terms of distributions, there were still significant advantages. And of course, you’re talking to somebody in the Big Ten membership. I think there’s always inherent bias.”

Big Ten membership may allow for more financial stability, but it ramps up the Hawkeyes’ competitive challenges within their conference. Iowa athletics reported $173.2 million in revenue to the NCAA for the 2024 fiscal year, ninth-most among the Big Ten’s 16 public institutions, according to figures obtained through state open-records laws. Some of the schools ranked higher received sizable contributions from their universities through direct funding or student fees.

Iowa has seen increased competition in the Big Ten, but it has also allowed for greater financial flexibility. (Photo by David Purdy / Getty Images)

Iowa’s athletic department became independently self-sustaining in 2008, but continues to pay back the university for a $50 million loan it received during the pandemic. That costs around $3 million annually on a 15-year timetable. At this point, the athletic department has no plans to ask the regents or the university for further financial assistance.

“Any support that our institution receives from the state should flow through the campus side,” Goetz said. “And if there’s support for athletics, I think those are institutional decisions about how we navigate and use our resources.”

Unlike the mostly balanced Big 12, the Big Ten has a wide variance in revenue among the public institutions. Ohio State generated nearly $255 million in revenue during fiscal year 2024; Maryland reported less than $128 million. That financial disparity often translates into football success. Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State rank in the top three in overall revenue and victories over the last decade, and the Wolverines and Buckeyes have won the last two national titles.

Iowa football has overachieved relative to the school’s financial ranking. Over the last decade, Iowa ranks fifth in overall wins among current Big Ten teams, just one victory shy of Oregon. The Hawkeyes are one of just five programs nationally to win at least eight games in every full season since 2015.

Still, they have no Big Ten titles, CFP appearances or major bowl victories in that stretch. The league’s recent additions include defending Big Ten champion Oregon, 2024 CFP runner-up Washington and historic power USC. While it has won three division titles since 2015, Iowa’s last two Big Ten championships took place in 2002 and 2004, and both were shared. The Big Ten no longer has a divisional structure, which means the Hawkeyes compete with 17 programs for two title-game slots, not six other West Division squads.

“It’s a great conference. It’s always been a great conference,” Ferentz said. “It’s always been competitive. It’s always been tough. We’ve never really started out in lane one, but we’ve been able to get there and finish there.”

But Ferentz, who is tied with Ohio State’s Woody Hayes for the most wins by a Big Ten coach, seems undaunted by the challenges. Ferentz, a lifelong baseball fan, referenced the Milwaukee Brewers, Detroit Tigers and Toronto Blue Jays holding the top three records in Major League Baseball over clubs in larger markets. To him, it proves money is not the No. 1 driver of sporting success.

“How’d that happen?” Ferentz said. “It must be good scouting, good coaching, good player development, I’m guessing, and I’m sure they got the right free agents. The point is you just never know.

“You just worry about playing and getting better. That’s all you can do.”

The verdict

Perspective matters in this comparison. Winning a Big Ten championship is more difficult today than ever before, but four Big Ten teams qualified for the CFP last season, and fourth-place Ohio State won the national title. With Oklahoma and Texas now in the SEC, the Big 12 has never been more balanced from top to bottom. Iowa State has a clearer road toward winning a league championship than its in-state rival, but the Big 12 picked up just one CFP spot last year.

“In a small way, in the new version of the Big 12, there is certainly a pathway,” Campbell said. “It’s still not always going to be the easiest. There’ll be a lot of places that may have more financial resources than what we have. But I think what we have is enough, and what we have is really powerful. And as long as we don’t lose ourselves in who we’re not and know who we are and continue to strengthen who we are, then I think you will always have a chance to be really special.”

“Being able to show up week in and week out in a conference with the depth and the talent we have, even if that means you’re playing against a more challenging opponent, or your path is more difficult is a component of that, I think competitors want to know they can play at the highest level,” Goetz said. “I think that’s really attractive.”

This weekend, the teams will clash for the Cy-Hawk Trophy and bragging rights. The Big Ten has financial advantages other leagues cannot approach. If the rationale is based strictly on revenue, then there’s no debate. Perhaps the right way to issue a verdict is for the teams to settle it themselves on the football field.

(Top photo: Jeffrey Becker / Imagn Images)