The Iowa State Cyclones and the Iowa Hawkeyes compete against each other in the Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk Series every academic year.

With no professional sports teams in the state, the head-to-head competition between Iowa’s two largest universities’ athletic teams thrills a divided Iowa citizenry.

“I’m gonna be honest,” said Matt Thomas, junior guard for ISU men’s basketball. “When I came in here as a freshman from Wisconsin, I really didn’t know a ton about the rivalry. Over the years, I’ve learned a lot just being at football tailgates or obviously playing in Carver-Hawkeye. You know how big this is to us and obviously the fans and the state of Iowa. It’s huge.”

The Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk Series officially began in 2004 as the Hy-Vee Cy-Hawk Series. It changed to the Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk Series in 2011.

Each sport is worth two points with the exception of football, which is worth three points. Academics was added as a part of the series in 2011 and is worth one point.

Since the series began, Iowa has won six titles while Iowa State has won five. Iowa State repeated as the champion in the series in 2015 with a 14-11 victory, making it the first school to win back-to-back titles.

“I don’t know what [the Cy-Hawk Series] means. We win all the time,” said Georges Niang, senior forward for ISU men’s basketball. “Nah, nah, it’s a huge deal, but I think it’s more prideful than anything in the fact that we are winning.”

Niang has a history of going back and forth with Iowa fans on social media and speaking his mind of who he thinks is best.

“I don’t really have to say anything to [Hawkeye fans], I just like to get them going [because] they can’t really say anything back,” Niang said. “There’s no real argument there.”

Since 2002, the ISU men’s basketball team has won nine games against Iowa.

“Personally, I’m 2-0 so far, and I’m looking to go 4-0 my next two years,” Thomas said.

The ISU football team has also fared well against the rival Hawkeyes in recent years.

Iowa leads the all-time series 40-22, largely due to a 15-year winning streak from 1983-97. A recent surge from Iowa State has closed that gap with the Cyclones taking 10 of the last 17.

The Cyclones have a 17-33 record in the last four years with head coach Paul Rhoads at the helm, yet they have still managed to beat Iowa three times. The wins include the 2014 season, when ISU kicker Cole Netten hit the game-winning field goal with two seconds remaining on the clock.

Despite basketball and football leading the way in the rivalry, it is of equal importance for other ISU sports.

For Tony Minatta, head soccer coach for ISU women’s soccer, it means attendance records and electric atmospheres.

“Obviously for Big 12 games we get 1,200-1,500 fans a game. Typically for other games, if it’s not a big conference game, you’re looking at 800,” Minatta said.

“For [last year’s Iowa] game I think there were 2,500 people there,” he said. “They had the drumline there, so it was an electric atmosphere, and it was something that I think really spurred our team on to the win in that particular game.”

The Cyclones beat the Hawkeyes behind the record-setting crowd of 2,090 with a goal in the 75th minute. The previous attendance record was 1,574.

“Obviously establishing ourselves against Iowa in the state is big, not just from the standpoint of the Cy-Hawk series, but from a recruiting standpoint and all those types of things,” Minatta said. “We really look at it as just another game to get a good win for not just the Cy-Hawk series but for our own personal benefit as a team.”

The men’s and women’s cross-country teams kick off this year’s Cy-Hawk series in Iowa City for the Hawkeye Early Bird Invitational on Sept. 4.

Iowa is coming to Ames for football Sept. 12 and men’s basketball Dec. 11.

The two schools have agreed to play each other through the 2020 season in football.