The ISU football team is going national. The Cyclones’ Sept. 15 matchup with the Iowa Hawkeyes will be nationally televised on national cable television channel VERSUS. The game, which is part of an agreement between the Big 12, VERSUS and FOX Sports Net, is just one of five currently scheduled games to be broadcast on the network.

“The enhanced national exposure for Big 12 football on VERSUS is an asset,” said Big 12 commissioner Kevin Weiberg in a statement to www.cyclones.com. “With games on ABC, FSN, ESPN and now VERSUS, we have significantly expanded the reach of Big 12 football. We are pleased with this new agreement and appreciate the efforts of our partner FSN in bringing in this opportunity to us.”

According to the statement, VERSUS will be available to a variety of networks, including Mediacom Cable in Central Iowa. The agreement between the three networks will bring a total of 12 of the Big 12’s nonconference football games to national television audiences either on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, FSN or CSTV.

“We are thrilled to announce the addition of Big 12 and Pac-10 games to our existing lineup of collegiate sports,” Marc Fein, senior vice president of programming and production for VERSUS, said in the statement. “Our schedule from these conferences will feature some great matchups and this partnership will ultimately help to grow our audience and bring in new viewers to the network.”

One of those games will be the 12:30 p.m. game between Iowa and Iowa State. The matchup will mark the first time both teams square off against each other since the Sept. 16, 2006, matchup that saw the Hawkeyes defeat the Cyclones, 27-18 in Iowa City.