It is the state of Iowa’s biggest game of the year.

One weekend every September, battle lines are drawn as the state divides against itself.

The No. 8 Iowa Hawkeyes invade Ames on Saturday for their annual tilt with the Iowa State Cyclones.

It has been called “Iowa’s Super Bowl,” a moniker that rings more true than not with the lack of a major professional sports team in the state to take focus away from the collegiate teams.

“Like everyone says, it’s Iowa-Iowa State,” senior defensive lineman Nick Leaders said. “That’s all everyone talks about. It’s a different atmosphere for this one.”

This year’s game lives up to that hype and more, as Iowa (1-0) will be the first team to come into the game ranked in the top 10 since 1985 when the Hawkeyes were ranked third.

“[Iowa] looked like they deserved to be better than No. 10 or 11 in the country watching that tape,” ISU coach Dan McCarney said of the Hawkeyes’ showdown with Ball State last Saturday. “They looked like a legitimate top-five team.”

Combine that national buzz with the high expectations surrounding the potential of the Cyclones this season, and the stakes are significantly raised.

The Cyclones (1-0) struggled to put away Illinois State last week, but came away with a 32-21 victory, as well as their first “gut check” of the season.

“We did get a win, there’s no question about it,” said McCarney.

“We made just enough mistakes to let them just keep hanging around, so we did get a gut check.”

After poor play in the first week raised questions about whether the Cyclones could compete with the Hawkeyes, it may have also served as a wake-up call to Iowa State.

“We got our first one out of the way,” Leaders said. “It wasn’t pretty, but we got a win. We’ve got a lot to do this week to be ready for this game.”

Two of McCarney’s biggest concerns came from the barrage of penalties the Cyclones sustained in the first half of their game against Illinois State, as well as Stevie Hicks’ relatively low rushing yardage.

Iowa State was penalized six times for 50 yards in the opener, and McCarney said thankfully those mistakes can be corrected.

“It’s not going to happen just because you want it to and because we pointed it out in tape,” McCarney said. “There’s a lot of things involved when you’re trying to turn a mistake around.

“It’s taking responsibility for your mistakes and being a lot better than we were.”

Hicks carried the ball 25 times for 90 yards and a healthy 3.6 average to go with his one touchdown, but, again, McCarney sees the need for improvement.

“It was a combination of missed blocks, communication, we were below average most of the night in our rush game and we’re going to do everything to better it this week,” he said.

While Iowa State struggled through its opener, the Hawkeyes were steamrolling a Ball State team missing 13 players to suspension — including eight starters — in a 56-0 victory.

The Hawkeyes had a chance to tweak the major areas of concern coming into this season — defensive line and running backs — using eight backs to carry the ball and 10 receivers to catch passes.

The depth gave the ISU coaching staff plenty to study and prepare for throughout the week.

“It’s going to be a tremendous challenge,” McCarney said. “Kirk obviously lost his four starters up front, but you can tell watching the game tape they’re not rebuilding — they’re reloading.

“There’s no doubt they’ve got all those backs healthy. They’re playing three or four running backs. They all look good.”

Iowa won last year’s meeting in Iowa City 17-10 and has taken the last two in the series after snapping a five-game losing streak to the Cyclones.

Saturday’s game will be broadcast at 2:30 p.m. on ABC.