Why the Big 12 Can’t Afford to Lose the Farmageddon Rivalry

As fans make their way back to the states, I can’t help but think about the future of Farmaggedon. I know that we will have one more game between Iowa State and Kansas State next year in Ames, but that appears to be the last one for the foreseeable future.

It’s just crazy to think that this game will go away soon. What we saw Saturday was two fan bases traveling over 4,000 miles, spending thousands of dollars to watch their favorite team play their rival in Ireland.

For those who went, you know the scene; you were there. The streets were full, the pubs were full, and countless Guinness pints were consumed, all because of this football game. I don’t know how someone experiences all that, watches the game, and goes You know what? We don’t need any more of that.

Brett Yormark and the Big 12 haven’t made many mistakes over the last couple of years, but not making Farmageddon a protected rivalry is a big one. The Big 12 is a conference that is lacking natural rivalries, and taking one away that has been played for over 100 years straight is absolutely absurd. To go one step further, the pair of schools even went as far as notifying ESPN that they do not want people using the name “Farmageddon” when discussing the game.

I understand that the conference didn’t want more than one proceeding rivalry per school, but some schools don’t even have one. So what’s the big deal if a school has two? Kansas State already has Kansas, which makes sense, but why can’t they have one with Iowa State, too?

The Cyclones currently don’t have a protected rivalry in the Big 12, and the only rivalry game left would be against Iowa, which is a non-conference matchup. It wouldn’t be hard to have Iowa State and Kansas State play one another every year.

Instead of Kansas State playing someone like Arizona, UCF, or Cincinnati, make sure they play Iowa State instead. At the end of the day, it’s still a conference game and would count the same as playing anyone else within the Big 12.

The conference should be ashamed to take this away from us, from those fan bases, and from college football fans in general. You want to talk about what’s good for college football and what’s good for the Big 12? Keeping your rivalry games is a part of that, and the lack of awareness from the Big 12 is just pure ignorance.