Another good one is UCF against Florida. Would be great if the Knights could beat the SEC there. Yes Florida hasn’t been great lately but still would be a nice win.
If you could pick 1 guaranteed win...
- Thread starter Nolaeer
- Start date
I do live in Iowa. 3 miles from JTS in fact. I want to beat Iowa as much as the next guy. However, I’d rather try and win B12 championships. If you believe that your guaranteed win for this year only is Iowa, good for you. My thought is Utah will be the biggest obstacle between us and the CCG potentially so I picked Utah. If you’d rather beat Iowa 10-7 again this year more power to you.
Now, if the question was who would you want to be guaranteed to blow out? Then it’s Iowa and it’s not even close
I thinks lots of ISU fans care more about conference championships and making the playoffs. In the new format the Iowa game is kinda irrelevant to both of those.
I know many ISU fans who live in Iowa (including myself) who don’t really care if we win or lose that game (or even play it at all). It’s a boring game that has no real impact on our season outcome.
If you value being able to talk smack to your co-worker at the water cooler for 2 days, more than winning big 12 championships… I question your critical thinking.
The answer every year to this question is the hardest conference game.
Do you have evidence that indicates beating iowa has a direct causation in winning in-state recruiting battles? Your conclusion seems fuzzy at best, unless there is good consistent long standing evidence for this I am missing.
Also— is recruiting the state of Iowa our key to success? How many legit power 4 players are in the state each year? How many of our 2 deeps are from Iowa? How many could be from Iowa? I suspect the number is low if you think about what our max ability to recruit the state will be. Iowa isn’t losing ALL the good in state kids, it’s silly to think any MAJOR long term change to state recruiting battles possible. Beat Iowa every year for 10 years, maybe you flip a few kids. I think a better way to win in state recruiting battles is to WIN conference championship, and make the playoffs. Let kids see ISU on the biggest stage. Iowa is about to have a much harder time making the playoffs. That is our advantage.
Also— recruiting seems to be about relationships, not necessarily success in ONE game, or success in general. Campbell and co are going to appeal to certain Iowa kids based on relationships, style of play, style of coaching, positional success in getting guys to NFL, and the kids upbringing.
Beating iowa I don’t think really changes any of these.
I wish our fan bases obsession with Iowa would have eroded by now.
Evidence is a stupid choice of word when predicting future events that have random possibilities. But the OPs original premise was pick one win every year. I think.the Hoks streak spanning over a decade supports the theory if we beat them every year from this year forward eventually the scales would tip in our favor to a major extent.
It was edited at 8:47 yesterday adding that more than half an hour after I gave my response.
OP edited their original post yesterday to clarify they intended the question be about just this year.
Which makes sense, because I don't think WVU would play PSU often enough for OP to pick them if it were in perpetuity.
Couldn't get past the first page of this thread....reading people pretend like Iowa isn't the clear choice this year, next year and every year is just so odd. My eyes bleed anytime I see someone type "Iowa isn't a conference game it doesn't matter derp derp.." just so dumb. Iowa is the game we have to win every year and there is no debate.
Utah? Freaking Utah? Cmon man...
Utah? Freaking Utah? Cmon man...
What's so hard for people to understand? If you could be guaranteed one win, which would it be? Doesn't mean it's your only win. I think we can beat every team on the schedule but Utah (not saying we will but have a much better chance to win at Iowa or WVU or at home against KSU than we do at Utah). For those choosing Iowa, was 2022 a more fun season than 2023?
Ok but I stand by my original statement if I could have one win this year or every year I'd still choose Brooklyn Decker.
I did see that Iowa had 12-13 native Iowa guys listed as a starter or backup on their preseason depth chart. Including many on their defense.
Perhaps it has something to do with that 15-game losing streak from 1983-1997? A series of crushing defeats with games over by the first quarter in 80s that utterly destroyed the Cyclone football brand?
You are absolutely right, as that was then, and this is now.
Now we can replace Iowa with a cutting-edge MAC opponent such as Ohio or Akron and very possibly grind out a consistent 3-7 point win each season. I would never consider it a guaranteed win though.
The true beauty of our football approach is that we can beat anyone on any day (Oklahoma) and lose to anyone on any day (Ohio). The guaranteed win simply does not exist.
If you feel bad about a loss, just come here and let the frequent posters explain why the game ultimately did not matter in the first place.
The right answers here are Utah, K-state or Iowa. Valid reasons for any of these 3.
you could also state the Big12 Title game
you could also state the Big12 Title game
There's objectively a debate about this.
