Welcome to 2025, Wildcat fans. It’s time to get back on the treadmill and churn through another blood pressure increasing season of Kansas State football. Of course, this year most of us aren’t going to be able to attend the opener, and there’s still going to be an entire week of August left over after we’re done.
Indeed, as dawn breaks on September 1 the Cats will have already gotten 1/6 of the regular season in the bag. We live in crazy times.
The Game
The 17th-ranked Kansas State Wildcats (9-4, 5-4 Big 12
last year) face the #22 Iowa State Cyclones (11-3, 7-2 Big 12 last year) in the Aer Lingus College Football Classic in Dublin, Ireland, the very first Division I FBS game of the 2025 season.
This is only the second time in history that the Wildcats are opening the season with a conference game, the first being the very first Big 12 game ever in 1996 when K-State opened the season in Lubbock with a win over Texas Tech. It’s also K-State’s second-ever game outside the United States, following a 1992 trip to Japan to play Nebraska, which we don’t talk about unless we’re discussing Bill Snyder’s gamesmanship.
The Cats are coming off a typical Cat-like season; K-State has won 44 games in the last five non-COVID years, never more than a game off nine wins. Iowa State, on the other hand, had the best season in the history of their entire program. Never having won 10 games in a single year prior to 2024, the Cyclones not only achieved that milestone for the first time but went one better as they notched their 11th win of the year in a thrilling 42-41 win over Miami in the Pop-Tarts Bowl.
Farmageddon — or Farm O’geddon, as this year’s edition is being referred to in many quarters — has truly become K-State’s biggest rivalry (on the football field, at least). After coming within one game of evening the all-time series with the Cyclones twice in the years just before COVID wreaked havoc, Iowa State has had the Wildcats’ number, winning four of the last five in the series. That leaves Iowa State up 54-50-4 all-time.
Each team’s longest winning streak against the other is 10 games. The two teams are literally next to each other in the all-time Division I FBS winning percentage list, and are separated by just two wins all-time (579 for the Cats, 577 for the Clones). They’ve played every single year since they first played one another, the longest never-interrupted series in college football, which will be broken in 2027 because college football has become stupid.
These teams are fraternal twins, bound by grain and livestock and beer.
Kickoff
Saturday, August 23, 11:00am CT at Aviva Stadium (47,000) in Dublin, Ireland.
Tickets
Both teams have officially sold out of their allotments, but you can still get tickets via Ticketmaster in Ireland. The cheapest are restricted view seats for €90 ($105); the median is €105 ($122). Of course, unless you happen to already be across the pond, there’s also the matter of last-minute plane tickets and hotel rooms, which makes the project quite a bit more expensive…
Weather
It’s going to be a mostly great day, as the overnight low should be in the upper 50s and the high should be in the upper 60s. Perfect football temperatures, and while it’s expected to be a bit cloudy, there’s no precipitation in the forecast.
Odds
K-State opened as -3.5 point favorites, although according to our friends at DraftKings it’s slightly narrowed to -3. The over is 49.5, and that maths out to a 26-23 win for K-State. The money line is -155 for the Cats, +130 for Iowa State. Oddshark’s computer wildly disagrees with all of this other than the winner, projecting a 36-20 win for the Cats, but Oddshark’s early-season projections have been a bit suspect the last couple of years.
Television
ESPN proper, with Dave Pasch, Dusty Dvoracek, and Taylor McGregor on the call.
Radio
As always, Wyatt Thompson, Stan Weber, and Matt Walters will be on hand on the K-State Sports Network as well as via satellite on SiriusXM 84. A national radio call will also be available in some locations with Gregg Daniels, Chad Brown, and Tim Cates.
Internet Streaming
The game will stream on the ESPN app (cable/satellite subscription required). Audio available via kstatesports.com. Live stats provided by StatBroadcast.
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