Cy-Hawk Rivalry Heads Under the Lights as Iowa State Visits No. 21 Iowa on NBC

The 73rd edition of the Cy-Hawk Series kicks off Saturday night, with Iowa State (1-0) traveling to Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City to face No. 21/22 Iowa (1-0). First-year Cyclones head coach Jimmy Rogers — the 34th head coach in program history — makes his debut in the rivalry series in a rare night game: just the fifth between the schools, with the series even at 2-2 under the lights.

Iowa enters as a 14-point favorite, but Iowa State has won each of the last two meetings and is chasing a third straight victory in Iowa City, something the program hasn’t accomplished since a run spanning 1998–2002.

Broadcast details

NBC carries the 6:36 p.m. CT broadcast with Paul Burmeister on play-by-play, analyst Todd Blackledge, and sideline reporter Kathryn Tappen. The Cyclone Radio Network’s crew of John Walters, Eric Heft, and Ryan Harklau handles radio duties. Kinnick Stadium holds 61,500.

NBC parent Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) saw shares trade at $25.20, up 0.6% from a prior close of $25.05, valuing the media and telecommunications company at roughly $92.5 billion. The company’s Media segment, which includes NBC Sports, continues to serve as a major platform for college football broadcasts.

Players to know

Iowa State quarterback Jaylen Raynor, a transfer from Arkansas State, arrives with eight career fourth-quarter game-winning drives — the most among active FBS quarterbacks — and 37 career starts, second nationally. In the Week 1 win over Southeast Missouri State, he accounted for four touchdowns, two through the air and two on the ground.

Special teams feature another familiar tormentor for Iowa: Dubuque native Kyle Konrardy, who holds the school record with a 63-yard field goal made in 2025, has hit 54-yard game-winners against the Hawkeyes in each of the last two seasons.

Defensively, Rogers and coordinator Jesse Bobbit have swapped Jon Heacock’s long-running three-man front for a four-man alignment built around backfield pressure. Newcomer Isaac “Bobby” Terrell, a Washington State transfer, made an immediate mark with an FBS-best three sacks against SEMO, earning Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week honors. The Cyclones recorded just 13 team sacks all of last season; Terrell alone totaled seven sacks and 12 tackles for loss at WSU in 2025.

Local ties

The rivalry carries a small-town thread: Iowa State starters Vince Benetti and Aiden Flora are Adel, Iowa, products and former ADM High School teammates of Iowa running back Brevin Doll. Adel is also linked to the Kinnick family — Nile Kinnick Sr. lettered at Iowa State in 1913–14, while his son, Nile Kinnick Jr., won the 1939 Heisman Trophy at Iowa.

Source: original release

What to watch

• Whether Iowa State extends its win streak in the series to three and its Iowa City streak to a third straight game.
• Terrell’s production against a Big Ten offensive line after his three-sack debut.
• NBC’s prime-time audience figures for the rivalry, relevant to Comcast’s sports media business.
• Upcoming Big 12 and Big Ten results that shape both teams’ conference standings.