One of the nation's nastiest rivalries will renew itself this Saturday.

And unless you happen to live in or near the state of Iowa, you probably didn't know (and/or care) about it.

Iowa State packs up the Cy-Hawk Trophy and takes it with them to defend it against an Iowa team that is just as eager to win it back (12:00 ET on the Big Ten Network).

This rivalry was a vicious one long before the Cy-Hawk Trophy was even conceived - Hawkeyes and Cyclones hated each other so much and so many residents broke the law showing their displeasure of the other school and its fan base that Iowa Legislature actually banned the game for the better part of the 20th Century (did so by making it illegal for that many Iowa and Iowa State fans to congregate together in one place). That all changed in 1977 when Iowa Legislature once again mandated that the rivalry resume.

However, that isn't the reason why you haven't heard of this rivalry, as it's had 30 years now to fester. The reason why the nation hasn't heard of this rivalry can be summed up by one person:

Hayden Fry.

And that's just the way he wanted it. He is on the record for saying that he believed that the state of Iowa couldn't support two Division I teams (funny, Kansas, a state will less population than Iowa, seems to support Kansas and K-State alright, and in the same conference no less) and made it his life's mission to destroy Iowa State Football (and the athletic department as well) in every way imaginable on and off the football field. His goal was to make the term "Iowa State Cyclones" not just irrelevant, but unheard of outside of the Big 8 states.

Needless to say, Fry succeeded in his quest in making Iowa State irrelevant - and making the Iowa-Iowa State game a "non-rivalry" at the same time. In the fifteen years between 1983 and 1997, Iowa went 15-0 against Iowa State. Not to say that Iowa State didn't have its opportunities to end the streak when the Iowa program wasn't at its strongest - the late 1980s and early 1990s were sprinkled with 3-10 point wins for the Hawkeyes over the Cyclones. However, whenever Fry had the talent, he certainly wasn't afraid to use it against Iowa State.

And we're not just talking about embarrassing Iowa State until Iowa had a comfortable lead - we're talking about Fry having his first string offense passing for the end zone midway through the fourth quarter with a 40+ point lead, simply because he could and there was no way Iowa State was going to be able to stop it.

Fry made it such that even the mediocre-talented in-state football players wouldn't even consider playing for the Cyclones, and even mediocre-talented out-of-state players would question whether they really wanted to come to Ames (and for those that think that Iowa State is located in such a desolate wasteland compared to Iowa and that's why Iowa State couldn't land recruits - when it comes right down to it there is very little difference between Ames and Iowa City - other than Iowa State has a more beautiful campus - generally considered one of the five most beautiful by national landscaping publications).

It's not to say that Iowa State didn't have some hand in its own ineptitude - the Criner/Banker/Walden eras of 1983-1994 saw Iowa State earn a record of 45-82-5, and only two winning seasons in that stretch - both 6-5, once in 1986, once in 1989. To make matters worse, Iowa State almost earned itself the "death penalty" (although I can't tell you the year/head coach it occurred) during this stretch for numerous NCAA violations. It's horrible when a school cheats - it's almost laughable when a school cheats and STILL can't win.

Having to play Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Colorado on a yearly basis during the glory years of the Big 8 Conference certainly didn't help matters either, mind you. But that's for another story.

The final nail in that coffin was the Iowa State athletic department allowed the football facilities to become so pathetic that recruits didn't even bother visiting Iowa State - and if they did, they ran out of there faster than the 40-time posted in their athletic profile.

It is no wonder that most Iowa State fans consider the 15-year stretch between 1983-1997 the darkest time in Cyclone Football history.

Things began to turn in the mid-'90s when Iowa State hired Dan McCarney to be the head coach (although Iowa would continue in its winning ways for another couple of years). As an assistant coach under Hayden Fry during the 1980s, McCarney better understood the importance of the Iowa-Iowa State game than pretty much any other coach Iowa State could have hired. It is actually noted that Fry warned McCarney not to take the Iowa State job as he would never be able to win at Iowa State.

One of the first things he did was demand facility improvements - and a brand new press box was built shortly thereafter and the gawd-awful AstroTurf was pulled out of Cyclone Stadium-Jack Trice Field (what the nation's best turf management school was doing with AstroTurf in its football stadium is beyond anyone's comprehension).

However, for the first several years, Fry was right. McCarney earned a 6-27 record from 1995-1997, including owning the nation's longest losing streak for a stretch in 1997 (looking back at it 10 years later, it's kind of sad that you would find beating an abysmal Baylor team to end that streak so exciting that it would drive you to tear down the goalposts and throw them in Lake LaVerne).

Needless to say, McCarney was very lucky to make it to 1998, and was sitting on a very warm seat. But fortunately he did, and that was the year things changed.

On September 12, 1998, McCarney and the Cyclones went into Kinnick Stadium and defeated Iowa 27-9. A new era had begun in the Cy-Hawk rivalry - and fuel had finally been added to the fire of this rivalry. Iowa State went on to win 5 straight in the series and has won 7 of the last 10 overall.

And like I said, the rivalry has gotten particularly nasty since.

Varied success by both teams and the coaching attitudes of Dan McCarney and Kirk Ferentz have also fueled the rivalry among the fans. While both McCarney and Ferentz are from the Fry coaching tree, both have approached the rivalry differently. McCarney viewed the Iowa-Iowa State game as "everything," and as a result, at least early on, the Cyclone fan base developed the attitude that a Cyclone win over the hated Hawkeyes equaled season success. Ferentz, on the other hand, took the attitude that the Iowa-Iowa State game was just another game on the schedule, and Iowa fans began viewing Iowa State as less important than Ohio State and Michigan, who they considered their rivals (although their fans would probably tell you different).

This has led to what would be called the "Super Bowl mentality". Hawkeye fans accuse that the only game on the schedule Iowa State and its fans care about is the Cy-Hawk rivalry, while on the other hand, Iowa and its fans treat it like any other game on the schedule. The success of Iowa early in this decade - the 2002 Orange Bowl berth and three straight final poll top 10 rankings - has "justified" the argument.

At the same time, Iowa State fans have countered that this is just a built-in coping mechanism for Hawkeye fans for when they lose to Iowa State. Iowa State fans accuse Iowa of a "double standard" when it comes to the game: when they win, "the better team won"; when they lose, "it was Iowa State's Super Bowl, they put everything into this game, they won the only game that means anything to them, etc."

What else has fueled this rivalry over the last decade is in the way Iowa State has won several of the games.

In 2002 Iowa led Iowa State 24-7 at the half. In the second half, Seneca Wallace rallied Iowa State to a legendary second half comeback that saw the Cyclones beat the Hawkeyes 36-31. Iowa went on to have an 11-1 season and went on to the Orange Bowl (where they were throttled by USC). Many Iowa residents consider this game to be what kept Iowa out of national championship considerations (although Ohio State, Miami, and USC fans definitely have something to say about this).

2005 goes down as one of Iowa State's fans' favorite victories in the series. Iowa was rated #8 that week, and the national media was in love with the Hawkeyes. Many "experts" had predicted that Iowa had a real chance at winning the Big 10 title that year and an outside shot at the national championship (paging Mark May...). The local media declared that Iowa State had no chance at beating Iowa that year. One fan chimed in a call-in talk show with "Iowa State's offense is extremely outmatched by Iowa's defense.... and Iowa State's defense is really bad right now.... I can't imagine a scenario where Iowa doesn't win this game by 20...." Iowa would only cross the 50 yard line twice that day and would never enter the red zone as Iowa State went on to humble Iowa that day 23-3. To make matters worse, Michigan, Ohio St., and Florida all went on to humiliate Iowa later on that year, as Iowa would never sniff the Big 10 title, much less the national championship.

2007 was another turning point for Iowa State, as after 12 years Dan McCarney "resigned" (under pressure from a vocal fan base and the AD) and were under first year head coach Gene Chizik. Iowa, on the other hand, (undeservedly) were once again considered to be contenders for the Big 10 crown - albeit this time because neither Michigan nor Ohio State were on the schedule. Field goals would be the only scoring Iowa State would do the entire day, and it was all they needed as Bret Culbertson would have a career day - made 5 of 6 of them, including the game winner, as Iowa State would win the game 15-13. Iowa would once again tank after this game, going 6-6 during the season, including a loss on Senior Day to Western Michigan, which dashed any remaining hopes for any bowl appearance. This loss was particularly bitter for Hawkeye fans, as Iowa State had just lost to Kent State and Northern Iowa, and once again Iowa fans thought their team was better than it really was. The following is an actual conversation:

Iowa fan - "You guys suck. You couldn't even score a touchdown."
Iowa State fan - "Um - look at the scoreboard. We beat you guys."
Iowa fan - "So what? You didn't score a touchdown."

Such comments over the last decade have led many fans, not just Iowa State fans, to consider Iowa fans some of the worst in America (one of the favorite running jokes among Cyclone fans is "What do Iowa and Iowa State fans have in common? Neither went to Iowa"). Larger fan bases that have had to deal with them in the last decade, particularly Michigan, Ohio St., USC, Texas, Florida, and LSU, understand what I'm talking about.

Whatever the case, it should be a great game between Iowa and Iowa State on Saturday. The line, last time I checked, put Iowa State as a 12.5 point dog. For those of you looking to make a quick buck this weekend, I'd put a lot of money on Iowa State to cover - they've been double digit dogs in 8 of the last 10 meetings, and have covered the spread in 9 of the last 10. Las Vegas usually falls into the trap of the national media giving Iowa WAAAAY too much credit.

It's just too bad that Hayden Fry was so downright effective in destroying the Iowa State program from the Iowa sidelines from 1983-1997 that even after a decade after the 15 game losing streak ended still nobody on the national front knows much of anything about this nasty rivalry. Granted, winning a lot more games would solve a lot of this problem. We can start by once again beating Iowa this Saturday in Kinnick and keep the Cy-Hawk trophy in Ames where it belongs...