This Saturday is “Farmageddon”, the annual football match-up between the agricultural powerhouses Iowa State and Kansas State. This game is big because it is the opening game to Big 12 conference play for the Cyclones. This game is more than just that though. This last spring the Big 12 came ridiculously close to being torn to shreds by other more lucrative conferences which also threatened to break up most of the original Big 8 schools. The Nebraska Cornhuskers Bugeaters left the Big 12 North, and its century old tradition with its sister schools of the original Big 8, for the Big 10′s greener pastures – paper green that is. Note that Nebraska was once called the Bugeaters circa 1900 and have since been renamed the Cornhuskers. I will from now on refer to Nebraska as the Bugeaters as a sign of my lack of respect for their lack of respect for tradition. Colorado also left (but no one really cares about them). The threat of breaking up the rest of the original Big 8 is real and there is a need to strengthen our Big 8 tradition with rivalry games. The Farmageddon game is one way to do that.
The game this year will be play at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, just like last year, which is a neutral location between Manhattan, KS and Ames, IA. You can read more about the game here at its Wiki page. There is an effort by both Cyclone and Wildcat fans to make the game a trophy game. Trophy games are a great way to strengthen a rivalry and emphasize tradition. Many college football trophy games exist. Here is a list of current ones listed on Wikipedia. There have been several created in the last decade to help spawn stronger rivalries and create tradition with new foes after conference realignment. Some examples include the Paddlewheel Cup between Cincy and Pittsburgh, started in 2005 to increase tradition amongst Big East teams following the football “poaching” by the ACC. Florida State and Virgina started the Jefferson-Eppes trophy to spawn tradition between the two then new ACC foes. And even recently, as the Nebraska Bugeaters move into their luxurious new Big 10 penthouse suite, the Wisconsin Badgers are making an effort for a new rivalry game.
As you can see, there is reason enough for new rivalries in this day and age, and the Farmageddon game between ISU and KSU is just the ticket. The primary reason I’m making this post is to encourage people to sign the petition to make the Farmageddon game a trophy rivalry ***which you can access at this link.***
Here are some more links to further discussion on this topic:
Cyclone Fanatic – Trophy game petition
Cyclone Fanatic – Farmageddon trophy game poll
Bring on the Cats (A K-State Blog) – It’s Finally Here: FARMAGEDDON!
By the way, I realize that with the Hawkeye Jokes post (which set a record for the most hits per day on the blog – take that Matt and Joey (Colby’s brothers)), and this post makes two sports posts in a row, but I am not trying to make this into a sports blog. We’ve just been so busy lately that college football has been the only escape, and the only thing worth posting about.
