After 215 long days, college football will be played again, with the 2025 season kicking off in Dublin, Ireland.
And it will feature a matchup that could heavily impact what happens in four months.
No. 20 Kansas State and No. 21 Iowa State will play in the Aer Lingus College Football Classic on Aug. 30, and it won’t just celebrate the return of college football or an international version of the famed “Farmageddon’; it may instantly determine a College Football Playoff frontrunner – all before Week 1 officially starts.
Even though it’s one of the oldest rivalries in the sport, it hasn’t been close for much the 21st century. Kansas State won 24 of 28 in the series from 1990-2017, as the Wildcats constantly competed for conference titles while the Cyclones struggled to find consistent success.
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But Matt Campbell’s turnaround in Ames has resulted in a 5-2 advantage for the Cyclones in the past seven meetings. For a series typically played late in the season, this will be the first time in its 109 years it will be played in August.
Yet it still has major implications for when December rolls around.
“That’s what makes this a terrific football game,” said Kansas State coach Chris Klieman. “In the stage that it’s on, it’s not Oct. 7 or Nov. 1 or anything. It’s two programs that know each other really well, that respect each other really well.”
The importance of the Week 0 contest speaks to how open the Big 12 is. Last season, both teams were in race all the way up to their meeting in the season finale, and both could have qualified for the Big 12 championship game with a win and some help.
The same expectations are on both side for this season opener.
“We did play this game not too long ago, and it’s gonna be good for us to play them again and right away,” said Iowa State quarterback Rocco Becht.
Arizona State enters the season as the defending Big 12 champion and was the conference’s lone College Football Playoff participant last year. The 11th-ranked Sun Devils are the early favorite from the league to reach the playoff again.
But if last season proved something, it’s that anything can happen in the wild Big 12. Arizona State split its first four games before stringing together six consecutive wins through the conference title game. Beyond contenders Kansas State and Iowa State, there’s also Texas Tech, Baylor, Utah and Brigham Young. There could even be another team that defies expections, like Arizona State did after being picked last in the league’s preseason pol.
It’s such a wide open race that the Big 12 – fearful of hurting its reputation – opted to do away with this year’s preseason poll.
However, Kansas State and Iowa State are of solider bets. In the USA TODAY Sports Big 12 preseason power rankings, they were second and fourth, respectively, among the 16 teams.
It’s no coincidence both teams also feature some of the best quarterbacks in the conference. Becht is the most experienced signal-caller in the league with 27 career starts and has thrown for 48 touchdowns in the past two seasons. Kansas State has Avery Johnson, who is expected a significant jump in his second year as starter. The dual-threat quarterback is one of the favorites to win Big 12 player of the year.
Johnson is joined by running back Dylan Edwards, leading a running game that was 11th in yards per game (215.5) and second in yards per carry (6.1). Iowa State still has pieces from 2024, but it will have to replace production from last season’s stellar receiving core and secondary.
“We’ve got a lot to prove to ourselves,” Campbell said. “We’ve got a lot of questions we have to answer. No matter what they do or how they do it, or what environment or what continent we’re on.”
Klieman won’t be fooled into thinking it’s not as good of a team. He said Campbell has developed a program that forces mistakes and consistently capitalizes on those opportunities.
Given the rivalry and possible ramifications, it could end up being one of the most important games of the season.
However, it won’t mean everything.
Yes, both teams want – and need – to win this game. But there’s 11 more waiting for them when they come back to the U.S. Both coaches are trying to stress to their teams they can’t put everything into a season opener.
“It’s different when you have to play it so early and there’s so much emotion and there’s so much season left to play that you can get caught up and all of a sudden make a lot of mistakes, and those mistakes can be debilitating early,” Campbell said.
But there’s just something about “Farmageddon.” Of the past five seasons, three times the winner of this game wound up making it to conference title game.
A win could setsthe stage for a magical run when they return to American soil, especially when the whole college football world will see the first statement of the season. It shouldn’t be the peak of the campaign, either.
“This is not a one-game season. This is a 12 game season, and this is a really, really important game for the conference race. It’s a really important game for both programs,” Klieman said. “It is the first game, and it’s a conference game. It’s a valuable, important game, and then you’ve got to come back and reset for the journey.”
