Waterloo’s NBC affiliate, KWWL, wants to see which university is the toughest of the tough with its “Fear Factor”-like competition, “Gut Check Challenge.”

Although the competition hasn’t taken place yet, Iowa State has already proven it isn’t the toughest of the tough by failing to produce a single entry for the competition, compared to 10 entries received from the University of Northern Iowa and five from the University of Iowa.

“It’s really unfortunate that we didn’t get a single application,” says KWWL reporter/producer Dan DeRoos, who is in charge of the project. “We were trying to really drum this up as looking for the toughest of the tough, but it looks like Iowa State won’t have a representative.”

The contest, which takes place at noon Saturday in Waterloo, pits one team from each school (minus ISU), made up of three contestants, in a series of challenges. Each player will decide which challenge they will participate in before the objectives of the challenge are revealed. The categories to choose from are endurance, courage and stomach — in other words, eating absolutely disgusting stuff.

The winner of each round will be determined by if the challenge was completed and how long each player takes. Three points will be awarded to the team that finishes first, two for second and one for third. A tally of nine at the end of the day would constitute a perfect score.

Three hundred dollars in prize money will be on the line. In order to be accepted into the challenge, teams had to write a 250-word essay saying why they would be a good choice. Entries were open to students, faculty and staff from the universities.

When the idea for “Gut Check Challenge” arose, DeRoos thought it was an obvious choice to include the three major Iowa colleges.

“Everyone is so hell-bent on the idea that ‘my college is the best’ that it was just natural to try to bring that in,” he says.

DeRoos said the inspiration behind many of the essays was the craving to one-up the other schools.

But contestants also had other reasons for stepping up to the plate. A team made up of UNI public safety officers said in its essay, it “wants to show all students how tough they really are to dispel the donut myth.”

Others simply admitted they were poor college students, and that $300 would buy a lot of pizza.

Of course, the hot topic of the “Gut Check Challenge” is the eating component.

Of course, DeRoos doesn’t want to disclose what the “Gut Check Challenge” participants will be eating, but he will say he and his colleagues sat down with some naturalists to see for sure “what they could make these kids eat.”

“I can tell you this one because it’s not [being used],” DeRoos admits. “There is an insect called a sweet tree grub.

“You use a little stick to get them out of the tree and then hold them over the fire. Apparently they are crunchy, and at just the right temperature, they are sweet. If we are declining on that one, you can only imagine what we are going to pick.”