'Billboard' material adds fuel to Iowa-Iowa State rivalry

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- The most talked about billboard in Iowa
has a tame message compared to what some folks have to say about
the rivalry between the state's two big-time football schools.

But try selling that in a Kinnick Stadium parking lot Saturday,
when No. 16 Iowa (2-0) takes on Iowa State (2-0).

The infamous sign on Interstate 380 in Cedar Rapids, a short
jaunt from Iowa City, reads "It's a Cyclone State," above a group
of Iowa State players celebrating last year's win over Iowa.

The board has drawn the ire of Hawkeyes fans since it went up in
July. It is just the latest jab traded in a rivalry in which bad
blood predates the forward pass, and the buzz it has generated is
exactly what Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard was hoping
to create.

"I've heard a lot of people talk about it," Iowa State wide
receiver Todd Bythe said. "I bet a lot of Iowa fans are upset and
mad about it. But I think it's all in good fun."

Of course, Pollard has gotten ahead of himself. Iowa has
dominated the Cyclones in both prestige and public adulation for
most of the last century. But the days when Hayden Fry's Hawkeyes
treated Iowa State like a punching bag are over, thanks in large
part to Cyclones coach Dan McCarney.

Iowa State, which lost to Iowa every year from 1983 to 1997, has
taken six of the last eight from the Hawkeyes under McCarney, who's
in his 12th season at Iowa State.

"To everybody in our camp and everyone in Iowa State's camp,
this is not just another game. It's a huge game for both teams,"
Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. "This is going to be up there on the
Richter scale."

Pollard's billboard stunt seems innocuous in the context of this
rivalry's often bitter past. Bickering between the schools put the
game on ice from 1921 to 1932 and 1935 to 1976, and only an
arbitrator's ruling brought it back to life.

A 1916 survey commissioned by the U.S. Commission of Education
stating that the game was the "occasion for the revival of feuds,
charges and countercharges (and) the reassertion of differences and
criticisms," led to a halt in the series. After a brief two-year
revival, the Hawkeyes used a resolution in the state Legislature to
justify not renewing the series.

The schools' athletic directors agreed to a two-year contract to
play starting in 1977, but when Iowa found out that its athletic
director had actually committed to six games, the school refused to
sign the deal.

An arbitrator was brought in to resolve the dispute, forcing
Iowa to honor the six-game contract.

Fan fervor has kept the series alive ever since -- though Iowa
made the term "rivalry" seem silly throughout much of the 1980s
and 1990s. All that changed in 1998, when McCarney, a former Iowa
assistant, and his Cyclones entered Iowa City as 26-point underdogs
and left with a 27-9 win that ended a 15-game losing streak.

"It's a whole different ball game now, and it started in
1998," said Ferentz, who is 2-5 against McCarney. "It's a heck of
a contest now."

Because Iowa (Big Ten) and Iowa State (Big 12) play in different
conferences, the head-to-head meeting in the only measuring stick
the teams have. There's also no major pro sports in Iowa, save for
Kerry Wood's annual rehab start for the Triple-A Iowa Cubs.

The Hawkeyes and Cyclones fill that void.

"It's just unique. It's a state without a lot of population,
with major college programs, Big Ten, Big 12, competing against
each other." McCarney said. "To say it's just another game,
somebody's crazy. It's not."

It seems hardly coincidental that Pollard's billboard was on the
route Iowa takes from the team hotel to Kinnick on game days.
Ferentz insists that he hasn't seen it, even though his wife
pointed it out to him the last time they drove by.

It looks like he won't get that chance. The billboard, which has
redefined the term "bulletin board material," was scheduled to be
taken down Thursday.

"This is not my time of year to be sightseeing," Ferentz said.