I’m a Kansas State alumni and fan through-and-through. My family tree has roots on the K-State campus in Manhattan. I bleed purple.
So, I do understand the Cy-Hawk Showdown.
There is no way I root for the University of Kansas in any sport — unless a KU victory helps my Wildcats in some fashion. I have KU friends who say “I cheer for K-State when it isn’t playing KU. You have to cheer for Kansas schools. You have to cheer for the Big 12 Conference.”
I say nay. When you invest in an education at a university, especially one your parents, aunts and uncles, cousins, second cousins all have ties to also, you go all in. I was a K-State football fan before it was cool to be a K-State football fan. I graduated from KSU in 1979. Anyone old enough to know about K-State football understands what I went through.
So, I get the Cy-Hawk competition in Iowa. One difference to the Sunflower Showdown competitions is that K-State and KU are in the same conference. Iowa State and Iowa are in different conferences.
If I was going to cheer for one or the other — and this will make most of my co-workers boo — I’d go with Iowa State. Why? Big 12 and Big 8 Conference ties are strong. More so with the old Big 8 with me. I still remember a 3-3 KSU homecoming game against Iowa State.
Let’s look at the current season of Cy-Hawk. Iowa State won the fall sports — football and volleyball. Iowa has two notches in the winter sports — wrestling and women’s basketball. Tonight is the men’s game in Iowa City.
Iowa State will be without one of its leading scorers. Bryce Dejean-Jones was suspended for one game by ISU coach Fred Hoiberg following DeJean-Jones’ arrest early Thursday morning. He was charged with gathering where marijuana is used, which was later dropped. DeJean-Jones is still charged with two misdemeanors: a nuisance party and noise ordinance violation.
Some good news for Iowa fans is that Iowa’s Brandon Scherff has won the Outland Trophy, given to the nation’s outstanding interior lineman.
The offensive tackle was presented with the award Thursday night during the 24th College Football Awards Show at Disney.
Scherff was the Big Ten Offensive Lineman of the Year in 2014. He was also selected first-team All-Big Ten for the second consecutive year, becoming the first Hawkeyes player to do that since Shaun Prater.
Scherff was selected over finalists Malcolm Brown of Texas and Reese Dismukes of Auburn.
Pittsburgh defensive tackle Aaron Donald won the award in 2013.
I know Iowa and Iowa State basketball fans will be going crazy tonight. I know about crazy when it comes to cheering on my teams. I understand the Cy-Hawk Series competition.
I suffered through such a long spell of K-State men’s basketball not being able to win against KU, especially in our own arena. That was finally broken, but men’s basketball is tilted as far to KU and football is to K-State.
Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535
or jsheets@newtondailynews.com