It’s that time of season again when you’re allowed to eat those freshly baked cookies or have a few days to unwind and relax from a busy semester or work week. Most importantly, you’re able to spend time with the people you love.

During this time of year, there’s a lot of holiday music on the radio. What I’ve noticed this year from the music is the fact that there’s many different needs or wants. Mariah Carey is pretty simple because all she wants for Christmas is you. It became more interesting when Gayla Peevey said she wanted a hippopotamus for Christmas.

Those are a couple of examples with a need or want for the holiday season. Since the holiday season is among us and it’s a time for sharing and giving, the Iowa State athletics department might be wanting a few gifts underneath the tree for the last part of the 2017-18 season.

First, they definitely want a win on Saturday at the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tennessee. The Iowa State football team is heading to its first bowl game since 2012 after a 7-5 regular season. The Cyclones haven’t had much luck in the Liberty Bowl as they’ve lost the only two times they’ve played in the bowl.

In 2012, the Cyclones fell to Tulsa 31-17 and once again in 1972 when Georgia Tech defeated Iowa State with a 31-30 final score. It seems like 31 points is not a good number for the Cyclones, so that would be a number to avoid.

Overall, Iowa State is 3-9 in bowl games throughout program history, so winning percentage is not on their side, but maybe some Christmas magic will be in store on Dec. 30.

The second gift under the tree will be a strategy to win in the Big 12 for both men’s and women’s basketball. In case you didn’t know, the Big 12 Conference is really good.

The Big 12 has West Virginia (No. 10), Kansas (No. 14), TCU (No. 15), Oklahoma (No. 17), Baylor (No. 18) and Texas Tech (No. 21) all ranked in the AP Top 25 Poll from the Dec. 18 poll. This conference is one of the toughest conferences in all the country for basketball and unfortunately, the Iowa State men’s team lost four key players from last year’s team which could hurt them these next few months. The Iowa State women’s team will be relying on true freshmen to help this team compete in the Big 12.

I’m sure men’s coach Steve Prohm and women’s coach Bill Fennelly are asking for a nice game plan to win in the Big 12 this holiday season because it’s going to be a tough task. The Iowa State women open up the Big 12 season on Thursday at home against Kansas. The men’s follow up on Friday at home against Kansas State to open up their Big 12 season.

It’ll be an interesting couple of months to see what players will step up in the spotlight and what these two teams will learn along the way. Will it be a veteran player like Donovan Jackson or Bridget Carleton that make those key plays? Or will it be the freshmen players like Lindell Wigginton and Cameron Lard or Madison Wise and Rae Johnson? I’m sure the game plan underneath the tree will tell them.

The third and last present the Iowa State athletics department wants for Christmas is the first wrestling dual win of the season. Head coach Kevin Dresser is turning this program around, but it’s taking some time before everything falls into place.

Iowa State fans have had to be patient for Dresser’s first win as an Iowa State wrestling coach, but that time might be coming sooner than later. When Iowa State gets back to school after the winter break, the wrestling team has two quick opponents in early January.

The first is a Big 12 match-up with Northern Colorado on Jan. 5 at Hilton Coliseum and just two days later Iowa State hosts Oregon State for a non-conference dual. Dresser should get his first win from one of these two duals because he’ll have all winter break to prepare these wrestlers for the second half of the season.

Northern Colorado is 0-2 on the season, while Oregon State is 2-1. Both Iowa State and Northern Colorado will be looking for its first win of the season, so hopefully the present underneath the tree will help Dresser out in getting that first win under his belt at a new program.

It’ll be interesting to see how the second half of the season goes for basketball and wrestling, while also seeing the end to an unimaginable season with the football team. I guess we’ll have to stick around to see if those presents become reality for the Iowa State athletics department.

So, just like they say in the famous poem from Clement Clarke Moore, “Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”