Peterson: Iowa State football will return to Arrowhead Stadium in 2024 as part of the Big 12 schedule
It has been known that Iowa State supporters will travel to Kansas City for nearly anything. It serves as their home away from home in a way. They travel there for the yearly Big 12 Conference basketball tournaments, which take place in March at the T-Mobile Center in downtown. They visit for concerts, sporting events, and other events such as professional football, baseball, soccer, and NASCAR.
When the potentially very good Cyclones football team plays the potentially very good Kansas squad at Arrowhead Stadium on November 9, I can assure you they’ll live up to their reputation.
The news that has been swirling for months is finally true: Iowa State football will play again at Arrowhead.
The 2024 Big 12 Conference regular-season schedule, which was unveiled on Tuesday, had it as its centerpiece. November 9 at Arrowhead Stadium: Iowa State vs. Kansas.
The dates of the remaining eight Big 12 games are the only other information disclosed in the conference schedule. In November, the 16-team conference’s who and where were revealed, but let’s recap some of the highlights:
- The expanded Big 12 adds Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah, while Oklahoma and Texas defect to the SEC.
- The Iowa State-Kansas State Farmageddon game that’s been played consecutively since 1917 won’t happen in 2027 − unless the teams meet in the Big 12 Championship Game.
- The Big 12 will remain division-less. The top two teams advance to Arlington, Texas, for the conference title game at AT&T Stadium.
- Colorado and coach Deion Sanders come to Ames in 2027, assuming he’s still coaching there. The last time the Buffaloes played at Jack Trice Stadium was a 17-10 Cyclones victory in 2009. That’s when both teams were in the Big 12. Colorado went to the Pac-12 in July 2011.
- Iowa State has seven home games in 2024 – non-conference against North Dakota and Arkansas State, and Big 12 games against Baylor, Kansas State, Texas Tech, UCF and Cincinnati. The Cyclones’ 2024 road schedule includes Iowa in the annual Cy-Hawk game, and then at Utah, Houston, against Kansas in K.C., and at West Virginia.
- First-time Big 12 opponents are UCF, Utah and Houston.
More:Iowa State football’s 2024 Big 12 Conference schedule includes five home games, three time zones
An Iowa State Big 12 power rating of the 2024 schedule could go something like this:
- Utah
- Kansas State
- Kansas
- UCF
- West Virginia
- Texas Tech
- Baylor
- Houston
- Cincinnati
That’s obviously just a quick guess. Looking at the conference in its 16-team entirety, you can place Arizona on the same line as Utah. Oklahoma State probably fits between Kansas State and Kansas, and Iowa State goes somewhere in the upper division.
The Cyclones’ schedule as a whole gets quite intriguing following their October 26 bye, as the next five games feature three home games (Texas Tech, Cincinnati, and Kansas State) and two road games (Kansa and Utah).
While some may figure the Kansas game at Arrowhead could just as well be a home game, due to how well Cyclones fans travel to road games – remember that Kansas is starting to pack in the fans, too, under coach Lance Leipold.
That’s a reason for the Arrowhead game. Memorial Stadium’s makeover is part of a $300 million “Gateway Project” that includes improvements at Allen Fieldhouse. The project is expected to be completed in 2025. This will be the fourth time Iowa State has played at the Chiefs’ 76,000-seat stadium, where the Cyclones have a 0-3 record − after losses against Florida State in the 2002 Eddie Robinson Classic, and to Kansas State in 2009 and 2010. All three games were one-possession losses, which isn’t shocking for a program that lives in those close-game margins.
Two bye weeks will be marked on the schedule. That is, after all, the standard for college football in 2024. That’s simply how the calendar unfolded. If you’re thinking about taking the road trip to Kansas City, you now know the game’s date at the very least. Times and television networks will be revealed later.
