Auburn, Alabama and the Iron Bowl.

Texas, Oklahoma and the Red-River Shootout.

Iowa, Iowa State and the Cy-Hawk Series.

As of 12:30 Saturday afternoon, ISU football coach Gene Chizik will have been a participant in all three events, and while one of those may not have the national recognition of the others, Chizik said he is ready to coach in one of the “great rivalries in college football.”

“Rivalries are really fun,” Chizik said. “That’s what makes college football great.

“In-state rivalries, the Iowa-Iowa States, the ones I’ve been involved in in the past, that’s what makes college football great.

“I’m really excited about being part of another great rivalry, one of the great rivalries of college football.”

Although, when Chizik is involved, rivalry may not be the best term to describe the games. Chizik’s record in those other two games? 5-0.

But don’t let that make you think that he’s going to treat this game with any significantly different importance.

ISU receiver Todd Blythe said the coaching staff has gotten a little bit of a crash course in the meaning of the rivalry in Iowa, but he said it won’t be much more different for Chizik than any of the others he’s been a part of.

“I think he came into this an he’s been a part of some other big rivalries,” Blythe said. “I think he knows what rivalries are about, whether it’s Iowa State-Iowa, Texas-Oklahoma, or whoever. He knows the kind of emotion and what it means, especially to the in-state kids.”

Chizik, however, said he’s not going to let the name of the opponent get in the way of preparing for the game and improving on the long run for the rest of the season.

“We are on a quest to make ourselves better,” Chizik said. “Until we get ourselves better, the opponent doesn’t matter. Everybody we play from here on out is going to be really good, so we really can’t worry about who that may be.

“For our players it’s, ‘Let’s have fun,’ but we still have to focus on what it is we have to do on gameday.

“We can’t get so caught up in all the elements of a great rivalry that we don’t continue to get better.”

And the key, Chizik said, is balancing the need to get better with the fun and emotion of a rivalry week.

“This week what we’re saying and our approach is we want these guys to go out and have fun,” Chizik said. “I want them to enjoy the game. At the same time you have to focus on what your job is.”

But Chizik still didn’t hide the fact that he can’t wait to get his first taste of the state’s Super Bowl.

“I’m really interested just to see the pageantry of it on gameday,” Chizik said. “That will be really fun”

Blythe said even though it’s an entirely new staff that has never been a part of an Iowa-Iowa State game before, he said Monday that everything still felt the same.

“It’s Monday, so it’s early, but so far it has felt like every other week,” Blythe said.

“I know that it’s a new coaching staff and certain things are different than last year, but the emotion and everything is still there.”

Blythe did say, however, it would be up to the seniors to prepare all of the freshmen and new players for the onslaught of attention this week, since the coaches have yet to experience it in Iowa as well.

“It comes down to the guys that have been through it like myself and Bret [Meyer] and the other seniors that have been through it two, three, four times,” Blythe said.

“We have to let the young guys know exactly what it’s going to be like. It’s going to be a crazy week with media and fans and stuff.”

With the team facing low expectations for tomorrow’s game (Iowa State is a heavy 17-point underdog), Chizik was asked if he would show film of Iowa State’s 23-3 upset from 2005 of heavily favored and then-eighth-ranked Iowa.

“It doesn’t matter. We can show them a game from eight years ago, it doesn’t matter,” Chizik said.

“These are different teams. We’ll bring up the history of the rivalry because that does matter. They need to know that there’s so much passion and emotion in games like this that anything can happen. That’s the point.”