Iowa State football has had its schedule since January, and since then, Iowa State’s coaching staff has had plenty of time to preview its opponents. 

In a college football environment full of transfers and teams looking very different year over year, Iowa State’s 2026 opponents may look very different from the last team each team met. 

The Cyclones are no exception. With 55 departures after the 2025 season, the Cyclones are a brand-new team. So, how will this new team match up to their 12 2026 opponents?

Southeast Missouri – Sept. 5

Southeast Missouri, also known as SEMO, is Iowa State’s 2026 FCS opponent, a game set up to help warm up the team. In 2025, Iowa State’s FCS opponent was South Dakota, and in 2024, it was North Dakota. 

Although you should never disregard an FCS team, SEMO’s chances of winning are very low. The program is coming off a 4-8 season in 2025 and lost to Arkansas State, the same team that starting quarterback Jaylen Raynor was on. 

SEMO does have some new and returning talent on its roster that Iowa State will need to be aware of if they don’t want to be upset. 

Khyair Spain is a redshirt freshman transfer running back from Memphis who averaged 6.5 yards per carry during 2025.

Spain had just two carries during the regular season in 2025, but in the Gasparilla Bowl vs. North Carolina State, he had nine rushes for 65 yards. 

SEMO’s other FBS transfer could affect the game on the other side of the ball. Clayton Leonard is a senior linebacker transfer from Illinois who is looking to find his time on the field in 2026.

Iowa – Sept. 12

Iowa and Iowa State’s biggest game of the year comes in just the second week of the college football season. Iowa will be coming off its opener versus Northern Illinois of the Mountain West. 

The 2026 Cy-Hawk duel comes as the first to be played under the lights since 2016, when Iowa claimed one of their largest wins over the Cyclones ever in a 42-3 dismantling. This year’s Cy-Hawk game is set for a 6:30 p.m. kickoff at Kinnick Stadium.

Iowa’s star quarterback in 2025, Mark Gronowski, isn’t with the program anymore after finishing his college career. He is now with the Miami Dolphins in the NFL. 

Stepping in for Gronowski seems to be redshirt sophomore Jeremy Hecklinski. The three-star quarterback from Walton High School in Marietta, Georgia, has appeared in just two games for the Hawkeyes, already garnering his first career touchdown versus the Minnesota Golden Gophers. 

In terms of transfers for the Hawkeyes, their 2026 transfer class was ranked at 76th nationally with 15 incoming transfers, with 10 coming from non-FBS programs. 

Those non-FBS transfers shouldn’t be overlooked, though. L.J. Phillips Jr. from South Dakota is coming fresh off an All-American season and the leading rusher with 1,920 yards in the FCS.

In terms of departures, Iowa lost two four-star transfers in Brian Allen Jr. to Vanderbilt and Koen Entringer to Louisville.

If Iowa State can walk out of Kinnick with a win, it’ll be the longest stretch of victories over the Hawkeyes since 2002. 

Bowling Green – Sept. 19

Iowa State ends non-conference play with a home matchup versus the Bowling Green Falcons. In 2025, the program ended with a 4-8 record, losing to the Big 12’s Cincinnati Bearcats. 

Two Bowling Green players, Cameron Pettaway and Key’on Washington, transferred to Iowa State. 

Pettaway ended the 2025 season as the MAC Freshman of the Year as well as First Team All-MAC Kick Returner. 

Washington went to Bowling Green in 2025 after redshirting his freshman year at West Virginia. Throughout the 2025 season, Washington recorded 37 tackles, a fumble recovery and three pass deflections.

Bowling Green quarterback Austin Novosad comes from Oregon as a three-star transfer and a four-star recruit out of high school. Novosad has appeared in five games with the Ducks, throwing for 99 yards across all five. 

Iowa State’s last game versus a MAC opponent ended in disaster, losing 10-7 to Ohio after a missed field goal, meaning just like SEMO, the Cyclones can’t treat this game like a free victory. 

Utah – Sept. 26

Utah is being touted as one of the favorites for the Big 12 in 2026, and they will test Iowa State in their conference opener. 

Senior Devon Dampier was elite for Utah in 2025, the seventh-highest quarterback rating (QBR) in the FBS with 84.4. 

Utah’s biggest strength in 2025 was its head coach, Kyle Whittingham, who, after announcing his retirement, unretired and went to Ann Arbor to coach for the Michigan Wolverines. 

Whittingham’s leaving meant that some of Utah’s best talents were headed to Michigan as well, with the Utes losing receiver JJ Buchanan, cornerback Salesi Moa, edge rusher John Henry Daley and cornerback Smith Snowden. 

Utah brought in some elite receiver talent despite the departures, bringing two four-star transfers to the program. 

Braden Pegan stayed in-state, transferring to Utah from Utah State. The senior received for just short of a thousand yards in 2025, with 926 receiving yards to his name.

Kyri Shoels comes to Salt Lake City as the other 4-star transfer, arriving from San Jose State. The senior received 768 yards in 2025. 

If Iowa State’s secondary can shut down Dampier and their new receiving core, they’ll have a shot at a win, but if they can’t, there’s a solid chance the Utes will walk all over the Cyclones. 

West Virginia – Oct. 3

The month of October kicks off with Iowa State’s homecoming versus the West Virginia Mountaineers. 

The Mountaineers finished third to last in the Big 12 with a conference record of 2-7, ahead of only Colorado and Oklahoma State. 

Despite that, West Virginia enters the 2026 season with the 20th-best transfer class in college football via On3. 

With a portal of players from receivers from LSU to linebackers from Villanova, and even Emerson Joy, a defensive lineman from the University of Alberta in Canada, West Virginia’s transfer class has players from all over college football. 

Arguably, West Virginia’s biggest transfer is quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. from Oklahoma. The redshirt sophomore from Dallas, Texas, played in nine games for the Sooners across 2024 and 2025. 

A vast majority of those appearances came during the 2024 season, with Hawkins playing in seven games. 

Hawkins’ best game with the program was a 21-20 loss to Navy in the 2024 Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl, where he threw 247 yards for two touchdowns. 

Another notable transfer is TaRon Francis from LSU. The redshirt freshman recorded no notable stats with the Tigers in 2025, but he came out of high school as a four-star.

Just like the game against Utah, if Iowa State can stop the pass game, they have a great chance at victory and giving Cyclone fans a reason to celebrate on homecoming. 

BYU – Oct. 9

Iowa State versus BYU will remind both teams’ players of their time in high school, with the game being played under the Friday night lights.

The 9:15 p.m. CST kickoff is the first of two Friday games for Iowa State in 2026, but it’ll be the second time the Cyclones face BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier. 

In 2025, Bachmeier’s Cougars took down Iowa State at Jack Trice Stadium 41-27, with the then-freshman throwing 307 yards for two passing touchdowns as well as a rushing touchdown. 

Now as a sophomore, Bachmeier’s BYU side is fighting for a College Football Playoff appearance by bringing in the 17th-best transfer class via On3.

BYU had just nine players arrive in the portal, but four-star tight end Walker Lyons from USC and three-star Kyler Kasper from Oregon give Bachmeier even more talented targets. 

Lyons was rated as the seventh-best tight end in the 2026 transfer class as a junior. In 2024 with the Trojans, Lyons finished with just 36 yards receiving, playing most of his downs as a blocker. 

In 2025, Lyons was targeted much more, grabbing 20 receptions for 223 yards and two touchdowns. 

Meanwhile, the receiver Kasper made much less of an impact with the Ducks, with just six receptions for 77 yards across his four seasons in Oregon. 

On the defense, BYU brought in four-star linebacker Cade Uluave from California. The now senior had three sacks with the Golden Bears in 2025, as well as 42 solo tackles. 

BYU is the consensus runner-up in the Big 12 for 2026, behind only Texas Tech, and with Iowa State not seeing the Red Raiders during 2026, BYU is the trickiest team for Iowa State on paper.

The thing is, football isn’t played on paper; it’s played on a field, and under the Friday night lights on ESPN, Iowa State definitely has a shot at an upset. 

In 2025, Iowa State led BYU 24-17 at halftime, and although the Cyclones roster in 2026 is almost completely different, the soul of the team is the same. 

If the Cyclones can carry over how they played the first half of the 2025 game, they will most definitely have a great chance at a win under the lights in Provo, Utah. 

Arizona – Oct. 24

The Cyclones come off their bye week with a tricky matchup versus the Arizona Wildcats in Tucson, Arizona. 

Just like pretty much every other game up to this point, Arizona’s biggest strength is its veteran quarterback, Noah Fifita. 

The senior threw for 3,228 yards and 29 touchdowns in 2025, with 253 of those yards coming versus Iowa State on their Sept. 27, 2025, matchup. 

Iowa State beat Arizona in 2025, posting by far their most dominant win in conference play, 39-14. 

Fifita threw for more than 200 yards, but he also threw two interceptions, which served as the breaking point for the Wildcats. 

The Wildcats had the 19th-ranked transfer class in 2026, with their strengths resembling BYU’s. 

Arizona brought in three receivers and three more tight ends, giving Fifita more targets on passes. 

The Wildcats’ highest-rated arrival is tight end Cole Rusk, ranked as a 4-star arrival on 247 Sports. Rusk’s arrival in Arizona marks his fourth team throughout his time in college football. 

Rusk arrived in Tucson from Illinois, receiving 217 yards in 2025 with the Fighting Illini. Before Illinois, Rusk was at Murray State, where he had his statistical best season, receiving for 512 yards with six touchdown receptions.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Wildcats brought in four safety transfers, with Daylen Austin from Oregon and Cam Chapa from Northern Colorado being the highest rated of the four. 

Austin enters 2026 as a redshirt junior. In 2025, Austin grabbed his first career interception versus Wisconsin in Oregon’s 21-7 victory. 

Chapa had a fantastic 2025 season with two forced fumbles, four interceptions and 63 solo tackles. In Northern Colorado’s game versus Colorado State, he had seven total tackles and an interception, proving he has the capacity to play at the FBS level. 

Arizona will look to grab its first win versus the Cyclones since 1968, having home-field advantage for a midseason duel. 

Oklahoma State – Oct. 31

On a Halloween night, the Cyclones will hope to spook the Cowboys out of town. Iowa State took down Oklahoma State 20-13 to end the 2025 season. The problem for Iowa State is that Oklahoma State is a completely different team.

Oklahoma State was one of the worst teams in the FBS in 2025, ending the year with a 1-11 record; the only program with a worse record was the 0-12 UMass Minutemen.

The Cowboys’ poor record meant that North Texas head coach Eric Morris would take the keys to the program. 

At North Texas, Morris finished 12-2 in 2025, with quarterback Drew Mestemaker leading the FBS in throwing yards with 4,379. 

Mestemaker followed Morris to Stillwater, joining the Cowboys as a five-star transfer for the 2026 season. The most impressive part about Mestemaker is the fact that in 2026, he’s just a redshirt sophomore, 

In 2025, Mestemaker had an abundance of standout games, but just about none in all of college football were as impressive as his 608-yard game versus Charlotte, the most of anyone in 2025 by over 100 yards. 

Mestemaker is an elite talent that Iowa State will have to focus its defense around, but they can’t forget about the rest of the program. 

On top of Mestemaker, Oklahoma State brought in four 4-star transfers, all of which are offensive skill players. 

Caleb Hawkins arrives at running back, also from North Texas, and led the FBS in rushing touchdowns in 2025 with 25 on the year. Hawkins also had the fifth most rushing yards in 2025 with 1,434. 

Wyatt Young also arrives from North Texas, receiving 1,264 yards in 2025, leading North Texas and ending the year third in the FBS. 

Breaking the trend of North Texas arrivals are receivers Justin Bowick from Illinois and Chris Barnes from Wake Forest.

As a redshirt junior in 2025, Bowick received 265 yards and five touchdowns for Illinois. Playing for Illinois, Ball State and Eastern Illinois, Bowick has accumulated 1,357 career yards.

Barnes played his redshirt freshman season in 2025, accumulating 547 receiving yards and three touchdown receptions, all of which came in Wake Forest’s 39-14 win over Oregon State. 

If Iowa State wants to make Halloween night special, they’re going to need to expect an offensive shootout, meaning they have to find defensive stops. 

Chances are, Mestemaker will have a day; the Cyclones secondary just needs to force mistakes from the sophomore quarterback and then have their own offensive showing on the opposite side of the ball. 

Baylor – Nov. 7

From one team that brought in a star quarterback to the next, Baylor brought in ex-Florida Gator DJ Lagway. 

Lagway was seen as the future of Gator football until this offseason, when he entered his name in the transfer portal and was headed to Waco, Texas.

Lagway’s arrival for the Bears wasn’t without some controversy. After announcing his commitment to Baylor, reports came out that he was still on visits with other programs, with Ole Miss and Duke among the rumors. 

In the end, nothing came of it, and Lagway made sure that Baylor was the correct choice for him.

Lagway was Florida’s man for two years for a reason, throwing 2,264 yards as a sophomore in 2025 on top of 16 touchdowns.

His biggest issue is most young quarterbacks’ biggest issue, and that’s mistakes throwing the ball. Lagway threw 14 interceptions in 2025, just two fewer interceptions than he threw touchdowns. If you take out Florida’s FCS game versus Long Island, Lagway threw 13 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. 

Interceptions are going to be what Iowa State needs to force to get a win versus Baylor, but Lagway can break out, and just like pretty much every game for Iowa State in 2026, the Cyclones are going to need to step up in the secondary. 

Even though Lagway heavily carried Baylor’s 2026 transfer class, fellow four-star Hosea Wheeler has also arrived after departing from the national championship-winning Indiana Hoosiers. 

Wheeler had 31 tackles and two fumble recoveries as a defensive lineman for the Hoosiers during 2025, and had 65 total tackles and two sacks during his 2024 season with Western Kentucky. 

Iowa State’s last game versus Baylor was in 2024, where the Cyclones won 43-21 to set their record at 5-0. Iowa State is almost certainly going to want a repeat of 2024 in 2026.

Cincinnati – Nov. 14

In 2025, Iowa State was on fire, headed into Cincinnati 5-0 with wins over Arizona and Iowa. This game against the Bearcats seemed like a certain victory to the Cyclones. 

Unfortunately for Iowa State, this game didn’t only end in a loss, but it completely dismantled Iowa State’s 2025 season. 

The Cyclones lost 38-30 after Cincinnati’s ground game tore through Iowa State’s injury-ridden secondary, putting together 264 yards on the ground for three touchdowns. 

In 2026, Iowa State will want to get its get-back against the Bearcats, and with star quarterback Brendan Sorsby leaving for Texas Tech, Iowa State certainly has a chance. 

ESPN has Cincinnati as the team with the third-lowest odds at a Big 12 championship in 2026, ahead of just Iowa State and Colorado. 

Currently, JC French IV appears to be the Bearcats’ 2026 starting quarterback, arriving in Southwest Ohio from Georgia Southern.

French finished 2025 with 2,929 passing yards and 20 touchdowns, as well as eight interceptions. 

With French came two 4-star receivers in the transfer portal: Cade Wolford from Kent State and Flynn Schiele from Division II Colorado School of Mines. 

In 2025, Wolford received for 509-yards and seven touchdowns as a redshirt freshman with the Golden Flashes. Wolford also rushed for 96 yards on 12 carries. 

Schiele only played one game in 2025 after suffering a season-ending injury, but in 2024, he received for 1,195 yards and 12 touchdowns in just 11 games.

That was his second straight 1,000+ yard season, after receiving for 1,013 yards in 2023. Coming out of Division II with a 3-star transfer rating means a lot, especially if it’s after a season-ending injury, so Schiele’s upside in the FBS could be special. 

Cincinnati is Iowa State’s best chance at a win during Big 12 play in 2026, but it’s still no guarantee. The key to the Cyclones’ victory is if they can keep themselves composed and minimize major mistakes.

UCF – Nov 20

Iowa State’s second Friday night game of the 2026 season is also its last away game. The Cyclones will head to Orlando, Florida, for a 5 p.m. CST kickoff on FS1. 

UCF was rated with the second-lowest transfer class in the Big 12 via 247 Sports with 31 commits, all of which were 3-stars. The only Big 12 program ranked behind the Knights was Iowa State. 

The Knights had several major departures, including John Walker transferring to Ohio State and Carter Miller to South Carolina. 

To fill in those roles, they brought in edge rusher Jessie Harrold from Florida State and offensive tackle Brady Wayburn from UConn. 

Harrold never appeared with the Seminoles, with 2026 being his redshirt freshman season. 

Wayburn is the very opposite, being a redshirt senior for the Knights, appearing in 12 games for the Huskies in 2025. 

UCF also brought in James Madison quarterback Alonza Barnett III. In 2026, the redshirt senior will be playing his first-ever games for a power conference program. 

In 2025, Barnett led JMU to a College Football Playoff appearance, losing 51-34 to Oregon in the first round after throwing 273 yards for two touchdowns. 

That season, Barnett was the Sun-Belt Conference Player of the Year after throwing 2,806 yards and 23 touchdowns, leading the Dukes to a 12-2 record and an SBC Conference Title. 

The Cyclones will need to prepare for an electric home field environment in Central Florida, as well as shutting down Barnett’s elite throwing game.

Iowa State will enter the Acrisure Bounce House hoping to take down the Knights on Friday night and head home for their season finale off a victory. 

Kansas State – Nov 28

The end of the 2026 season will end classically, playing the Kansas State Wildcats in Ames for Farmageddon. 

2026 marks the final year that the game will be preserved on both teams’ schedules, meaning both programs will want to win this one just a little bit more. 

Kansas State’s star quarterback, Avery Johnson, will play his final game versus Iowa State after playing for the program since 2023.

Johnson threw for 2,385 passing yards and 18 touchdowns in 2025, playing Iowa State in Ireland for both teams’ season opener. Versus the Cyclones, Johnson threw 273 yards for two touchdowns. 

Kansas State also brought in 4-star sophomore edge rusher Wendell Gregory from Oklahoma State. In 2025, Gregory was a bright spot in a team full of struggle, with 19 tackles, four sacks and a forced fumble versus Arizona.

If the Cyclones can bear the cold temperature, they should be able to end Farmageddon with their fourth straight victory versus Kansas State.