More than 30 tents filled with ISU students surrounded Hilton Coliseum on Dec. 4, 2014. The temperature hovered at 20 degrees — easily cold enough to cause hypothermia, but it didn’t deter students. The occasion? 

“Well, it’s the biggest game of the year,” said junior Jesse McAtee, standing outside his pop-up tent used for ice fishing. “We have to.”

The game, Iowa State’s home contest against Kansas, was six weeks and three days away. The demand was so high that the Iowa State Athletic Department made students claim their tickets more than a month in advance. Oh, and ESPN’s College GameDay was expected to be there for it.

Sound like a rivalry? Well, it may be one in the making.

Flashback to 2012. Iowa State was a respectable 14-6 team with no signature wins to show for it as No. 5 Kansas headed to Hilton Coliseum in a series that had been lopsided for years. The Jayhawks had won 13-straight games against the Cyclones since 2005 and second-year coach Fred Hoiberg was 0-9 against ranked opponents.

Call it Hilton Magic, call it the start of Fred Hoiberg’s rise, call it whatever. When the buzzer hit 0:00, students flooded Hilton’s court as the Cyclones pulled off an upset that would fuel what has become an increasingly heated rivalry.

But despite the growing rivalry, Kansas continues to dominate the Big 12, taking home their 10th-straight conference regular-season championship last season. That’s something to admire, right?

“I wouldn’t use admire, I’d use respect as a word,” said junior guard Georges Niang. “I don’t really admire much they do.”

Them’s fighting words.

But despite falling to No. 22 Baylor on the road, Iowa State still has a legitimate shot to take the Big 12 title. That is, if they can knock off the reigning champs at home for the first time since that 2012 upset.

Since then, the Cyclones and Jayhawks have played in two overtime games, one ending in controversy that triggered an apology from the Big 12. Each time the stakes seem to get higher as both teams climb the rankings and try to survive a grueling Big 12 schedule.

“Last year, we came up short to Kansas in here,” said sophomore guard Monté Morris. “This time we’re coming off a loss and we’ll just come out and try to throw the first punch and get the crowd into it early. We’re going to come out hungrier than ever and try to tie for first place in the Big 12.”

But for the first time ever, Iowa State will deal with a distraction that may best show how big the rivalry with the Jayhawks has become: ESPN’s College GameDay is coming to Ames. The day-long event features two hour-long shows in the morning with around-the-clock coverage from Hilton, putting the rivalry on a national stage.

The Jayhawks present another gritty matchup for the Cyclones, starting the season 14-2 with a 3-0 start to the Big 12 season. With similar games that yielded different results against Baylor — Kansas a one-point win and Iowa State a one-point loss on the road — the hype leading into the 8 p.m. matchup will only be amplified.

“We just have to understand it’s just anther big game,” said junior guard Naz Long. “It’s Kansas, you can’t get any more hype than that.”

If history is any indication, the bigger the stage, the better the game. When the doors open at 7 a.m. Jan. 17 for GameDay, the stage will be set as perhaps the biggest its ever been.

A win for Iowa State could mark the steady growth of a rivalry. A loss may show that Kansas is on its way to an 11th-straight championship. The national attention shows this is no longer just an average Big 12 game.

“It’s a big game for us, it’s a big game for them,” Hoiberg said. “If you want to be in a position to win the conference championship, you have to go at it with the attitude that you can beat everybody at home … We’re still in good shape but it’s still important to take care of business [Jan. 17].”