By Cyote Williams | Times Vedette

IAsportz features ACGC vs. Panorama game

If you are not familiar with IAsportz media, and you are interested in high school athletics in the state of Iowa, I recommend you check it out. IAsportz is an independent media group that covers the major sports across Iowa with IAwrestle, IAfootball and IAbasketball. The organization does a great job getting video highlights of these sports across the state.

Last week, the IAfootball crew recorded the ACGC vs. Panorama football game. They posted the highlights HERE. If you have got 10 minutes to spare and were unable to catch the game, these are a fun watch. If you were there and wanted to rewatch some of the best moments, they are also worth a watch. The crew also captured Valley vs. Dowling in what is normally one of 5A’s biggest matchups of the season.

Cy-Hawk

The annual Cy-Hawk game is Saturday in Ames. No. 16 Iowa State and Iowa have drawn plenty of attention to this weekend’s matchup with Barstool Sports College Football Show coming to cover the game, as well as the national program, Big Noon Kickoff. Back in 2021, College GameDay came to Ames to cover the state’s biggest college football rivalry. This year’s game is pointing to be one of the most crucial in recent memory.

The longstanding balance between these two programs feels as though it has been flipped on its head in recent years — culturally, at least. Sadly, for me, the Hawkeyes have dominated this rivalry. Despite the fact that Matt Campbell has turned the Cyclones into one of the most consistent teams in the Big 12, he has only beaten Iowa twice. Some ISU fans argue that beating Iowa is not important. Even so, Iowa is normally, if not always, ISU’s toughest non-conference opponent and biggest rival. Beating Iowa absolutely matters. Campbell is 2-6 against the Hawkeyes, and has yet to beat them in Ames.

The good news for Campbell is that those two wins have come in the last three years. This season is as good as any to firmly plant the Cyclones as the best college football team in the state. The Cyclones are off to a good start with a tough win overseas against one of the Big 12’s best, followed by a dismantling of one the nation’s best FCS teams in South Dakota. While Iowa did win its game against Albany, 34-7, major questions remain about its offense. The newest solution at QB, Mark Gronowski, who is allegedly making seven figures in NIL money, managed to put up only 44 passing yards against an FCS school.

If Campbell is able to make a statement win with the majority of the college football world’s attention focused directly on his program, he will get one of the few remaining monkeys off his back. Then, there is no telling how high this Cyclone team can fly.

Reach out with comments, complaints or story ideas to cyote@dmcityview.com.

By Cyote Williams | Times Vedette

Farmageddon chatter

No. 22 Iowa State and No. 17 Kansas State did battle on the gridiron in Ireland over the weekend with the Cyclones coming out on top, 24-21, in the Aer Lingus Classic in Dublin. For those of you who did not watch the game, there were multiple lead changes, fumbles galore and an incredible finish, cementing another classic in the ISU vs. KSU rivalry that has become known as Farmageddon.

These two teams have the longest continuous NCAA college football rivalry in the country with the two teams having played each other every year since 1917. This, however, is soon to change. With the Big 12 expansion, only four rivalries in the conference were protected: Kansas vs. Kansas State, TCU vs. Baylor, Arizona vs. Arizona State, and Utah vs. BYU. Four of these teams weren’t even in the Big 12 a few short years ago. Their rivalries are now protected, but one of the most notable in the sport is not. ISU and KSU will play again in 2026, but with how the current schedule is formatted, it will end by 2027.

Rumors flared over the weekend after Rece Davis, ESPN sports journalist and commentator, said on the ESPN College Gameday podcast that “the powers that be” are not big fans of the rivalry name. Who are these powers? According to several sources, the Big 12 and Kansas State denied the rumor. ISU football’s YouTube channel used the word in its recap video, but I was unable to find any direct denial from the Cyclones.

Rumors aside, this rivalry should continue to be played. I understand the difficulty in a 16-team league, but when you have the longest running rivalry in the country, don’t throw it away for Arizona vs. Arizona State. Not only that, but these games have been incredible to watch the past few seasons. The last four games were all decided by one score, including the 42-35 snow-covered thriller last year in Manhattan.

Gambling ads

On Aug. 1, I wrote about how the gambling industry has infiltrated sports to an annoying degree. My hunch, and the other sources I read for the column, were recently confirmed by a YahooSports.com article.

A study from the University of Bristol showed that a gambling ad was visible every 13 seconds during this year’s Stanley Cup Finals.

“Analyzing TV broadcasts of June’s Stanley Cup finals between the Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers, researchers at the University of Bristol found an average of 3.5 marketing messages from betting firms every minute, with 4.7 gambling-related messages per minute in the most saturated game.”

The scholars, who shared their work in The Guardian, also looked at the recent NBA Finals between the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder, finding a far lower share of gambling ads, with .26 betting-related messages and logos per minute.”

Micah Parsons to the Packers

This news broke quite literally while I was writing this column. A close friend of mine texted me “Enjoy Parsons wowwww.” Yes, with that many Ws. The trade could certainly earn my beloved Green Bay Packers some extra Ws as well. While, yes, I add this bit at the end of this column selfishly, the contract in which now former Dallas Cowboys star edge rusher, Micah Parsons, signed to seal the deal is historic.

Parsons’ deal is four years, $188 million dollars. That comes out to $47 million per year. It will have $136 million in total guarantees, $120 million fully guaranteed, and $62 million in year one. Each of the guarantees are NFL records. The Packers sent the Cowboys two first-round picks and Kenny Clark. That’s not much for one of the best defensive players in the entire sport. What makes this trade even more fun? The Packers travel to Jerry World in Dallas on week four this season. Get ready for fireworks. Go, Pack, Go!

Reach out with comments, complaints, or story ideas to cyote@dmcityview.com.

By Cyote Williams | Times Vedette

While I hate to admit that the autumn season will be soon be upon us and summer is about to end, I am excited that fall sports will start soon.

Yes, football, volleyball, and cross country are upon us. Football is an incredible game for many reasons and is one of the most popular sports in the country. A kick-return touchdown. A deep ball with the laces spinning under spotlight. A running back breaking through the line with nothing but green grass in front of him. I love it.

Volleyball does not get the credit it deserves for how entertaining it truly is. I attended several Iowa State University volleyball games over the years and thoroughly enjoyed each experience. It is nearly nonstop action from start to finish with dives, leaps, inch-perfect saves and blocks. One of the stats are called kills, for crying out loud.

Cross country, while maybe not as entertaining as the others, requires feats of endurance and stamina few can match, and that’s saying something.

Those are all plenty of reasons to get excited, but our local high school programs have reasons to be enthusiastic, too. I interviewed each of the head coaches of Panorama and ACGC’s football, volleyball and cross country teams for our Fall Sports Guide, due to publish soon. Listening back to their interviews and putting together the articles has me ready for every kickoff, serve and start.

For Panorama, Head Coach Charlie Lake enters his second year in charge of the football program. While last year was likely not the start he envisioned record-wise, he has plenty of talented players returning and has received plenty of support from his upperclassmen to ensure the younger players buy in.

Mollie Lint has improved her record as Panorama volleyball’s coach each year. Panorama was one victory away from a winning record last season. While Lint lost a great deal of fire power and defense from last season, she has been showing the ability to improve her team’s success for three seasons now. Will she be able to do so again this year with a young squad? Time will tell.

Greg Thompson has cultivated two excellent cross country programs across boys and girls. Running might not be your thing, but it sure is Thompson’s. The girls squad placed ninth at the state meet a year ago and returns six out of its seven runners. The boys were spearheaded by All-State talent Noah Poldberg but saw improvement from new athletes, too. Several athletes return, along with a few new faces, for Thompson for 2025.

At ACGC, Head Football Coach Cody Matthewson has been building a powerhouse program. It would take an entire column to list the number of All-District, All-Conference and All-State players he has developed since being in charge. While the Chargers have not been able to make it to the UNI Dome quite yet, with Matthewson at the helm, the sky is the limit for the black and gold.

Caley Vaughan takes over as the head coach of ACGC’s volleyball team. She has been an assistant and is now replacing Barb South, who saw success at the program. Vaughan tells me she still speaks regularly with South — a good mentor to have. ACGC has won 20-plus games in three of the last four seasons, and, like the football team, has narrowly missed out on chances at state. Could Vaughan get them over the hump? I’m excited to find out.

Rick Blake is going into his second season as the head coach of ACGC’s cross country teams. If year one was any indication of how good they can be under his leadership, the rest of the state better watch out. The boys won the state qualifying meet last year but lost several runners heading into this season. It will be intriguing to see if he and the Charger boys can replicate that success. For the girls, they won several meets last season as well, including the state qualifier, and performed solidly at state. They, too, lost a great group of runners. Whether or not they will be able to replicate that success is in the air, but, from what Blake tells me, he and his team are ready for the challenge.

All in all, each of these programs give sports fans plenty of reason to make it to games and meets this season to support the players and schools. I am excited to see how they all pan out.

Reach out with comments, complaints or story ideas to cyote@dmcityview.com.

By Cyote Williams | Times Vedette

Football season is right around the corner for ACGC and Panorama, the rest of Iowa’s high schools, and the college football programs. The NFL preseason is already underway. Football players returning to the gridiron symbolizes the end of summer as we head into the fall months. As disappointing as that may be, football season is a great consolation prize.

With the 2025 season coming up soon, I decided to take a look at the stat leaders from ACGC and Panorama’s programs from 2024 and some of the leaders from across the state as well. Keep in mind, many of these players graduated. 

Panorama

*Passing yards: Gavin Lindstrom, 337

(Panorama used three QBs equally throughout the season, bringing down the number of yards for one player)

• Passing TDs: Cruz Crandall, three
• Rushing yards: AJ Draper, 410
• Rushing TDs: AJ Draper, 5
• Receiving yards: Reed Draper, 300
• Receptions: Brayden Meinecke, 32
• Receiving TDs: TIE, Reed Draper, Brayden Meinecke, Latyn Ashworth, Connor Love and Blake Schwartz, 1
• Total tackles: Landon Kirtley, 44.5
• Solo tackles: Landon Kirtley, 26
• Sacks: TIE, Joel Cooper, Brayden Meinecke, Reed Draper, Cole Carstens and Landon Kirtley, one
• Tackles for loss: Brayden Meinecke, five
• Interceptions: Latyn Ashworth, five

ACGC

• Passing yards: Jathan South, 449
• Passing TDs: Jathan South, 7
• Rushing yards: Mike Fuller, 1,288
• Rushing TDs: Jathan South, 21
• Receiving yards: Joe Crawford, 279
• Receptions: Joe Crawford, 15
• Receiving TDs: Joe Crawford, 4
• Total tackles: 70.5
• Solo tackles: 49
• Sacks: TIE, Jack Sheeder, Mike Fuller, 2.5
• Tackles for loss: Brexton Schneider, 12
• Interceptions: Jathan South, 3

The stat leaders for these are with the players from 8-player football removed, as their stats can be inflated compared to traditional 11 vs. 11 football.

Across Iowa

• Passing yards: AJ Harder, Tri-Center, 2,882
• Passing TDs: Caden Lundt, Spirit Lake, 39
• Rushing yards: Carter Kunze, Tri-Center, 2,487
• Rushing TDs: Carter Kunze, Tri-Center, 39
• Receiving yards: Dylan Stecker, Spirit Lake, 1,223
• Receptions: Keenan Kilburg, Bellevue, 100
• Receiving TDs: Rayce Heitman, Williamsburg, 20
• Total tackles: Jackson Wacha, Ballard, 130
• Solo tackles: Jackson Wacha, Ballard, 106
• Sacks: Kael Riniker, Mount Vernon, 15
• Tackles for loss: Nathan Beitz, 30.5
• Interceptions: Jordan Dusenberry, 8

Reach out with comments, complaints, story ideas and more to cyote@dmcityview.com.

By Cyote Williams | Times Vedette

With summer sports in the rearview, and still a few weeks until fall sports get started, I have had the chance to run a little wild with this column. Soon enough, this column will be back to focusing on Panorama and ACGC. Until then, here are my thoughts on Iowa State University’s football team and Head Coach Matt Campbell.

I have fond memories of Iowa State sports growing up. Not a lot of them are about winning. Even though I am on the younger side, it is easy for me to remember a time when ISU was on the losing side of just about every sport. Sure, there was the odd upset and special moment here and there. But, for the most part, watching ISU was less about the product on the field and more about enjoying the company around you.

My earliest Cyclone football memory is of Todd Blythe’s one-handed grab in the back of the endzone to help defeat Toledo in triple overtime, 45-43. See the highlight HERE at 2:53. I was lucky enough to see this in person. Young me was convinced that Blythe was the greatest wide receiver ever and that ISU had a great football team. I was wrong on both accounts, but I was hooked for life.

That was 2006, and Iowa State went 4-8 that year. Paul Rhodes took over soon after. You might remember his “I am so proud, to be your football coach,” speech after ISU upset then No. 2 Oklahoma State, blowing up the BCS. It was an all-time moment. ISU is incredible at creating moments, but, as I said, not creating winning seasons. ISU went 6-7 that year, losing its bowl game.

A few years later, Matt Campbell steps in. The start was rough, 3-9 overall. What followed were back-to-back 8-5 seasons and a Liberty Bowl win. In 2020, despite a season strained by the pandemic, Iowa State made its first NY6 bowl game, the Fiesta Bowl, beating Oregon. In just a few short years, Campbell had turned ISU into a team where a bowl game appearance — not even a win, just an appearance — was seen as a major accomplishment.

Last season was easily the most successful in modern times, and, arguably, in the team history. The Cyclones won 11 games and the Pop Tarts Bowl against Miami, who had No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward at quarterback. It was an absolute shootout from start to finish, 42-41. A great moment. And, also, a great win.

That, to me, has been the biggest difference between Campbell and the other ISU coaches I have seen in my lifetime. The staff he has been able to keep, develop or hire continues to bring results. He finds diamond-in-the rough recruits and has started to attract more blue-chip prospects. He also helps get them into the NFL. And, most importantly, his teams win. Campbell’s 64 wins are the most in program history — one of the many records he has broken while being head coach

Coach Campbell’s coaching success has his name in the rumor mill every offseason, whether it be to join one of college football’s big dogs or the NFL. Nevertheless, Campbell stays put. He recently signed an extension to the tune of $5 million a year that will keep him in Ames until 2032. While $5 million is a good of reason to stay anywhere, Campbell can earn it, and plenty more, at bigger programs. He even took a pay cut during COVID so other sports programs did not have to experience cuts to their coaching staffs.

This reminds me of another college football coach in the state: Kirk Ferentz. Ferentz, quite frankly, is boring. His style of play. The teams’ colors. His press conferences. All of it. Boring. But Ferentz wins games, develops pro-talent, and he sticks around. If Campbell stays at ISU as long as Ferentz has at Iowa, the tide will eventually shift away from the Hawkeyes being the more recognizable football school in this state.

I’m not an ISU donor, but if I was, I would be asking Jamie Pollard if there is a plan to build a Matt Campbell statue in the works sometime soon.

Reach out with comments, complaints, story ideas and more to cyote@dmcityview.com

By Cyote Williams

A few weeks back, I wrote about the influence that broadcasting deals and media rights have had on college sports. Although it was brief, I hoped to get my point across. Big money was affecting the essence of collegiate sports. In the professional sporting world, I see a different threat to the integrity of the game — legalized sports gambling. 

In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) was unconstitutional. Without diving in too deep, the ruling cleared the way for states to legalize sports gambling. Soon after, in 2019, sports gambling was legalized in Iowa when Gov. Kim Reynolds signed Senate File 617. 

Early on, the only way to gamble on sports in Iowa was via DraftKings, one of the largest sportsbooks in the country, and to drive to the Wild Rose Casino in Jefferson and sign up in person. I did this — gleefully — with a friend. I lost money that night; my friend made money. It was all in good fun. 

This is where the fun stops. The ease of access to these apps is just a few clicks away on smartphones. Not only that, but these sportsbooks also now have a stranglehold on professional sports leagues and continue to grow their influence. It is nearly impossible to watch a sports broadcast, whether it be a game or talk show, and not be bombarded by advertisements from DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM or any of the other rapidly growing sportsbooks. ESPN even has its own sportsbook.

A story on the Sports Business Journal by Bill King says that as of January 2025, U.S sportsbooks have a combined 87 sponsorship deals with teams in the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB. 

With sports betting becoming legal and losing much of its stigma, athletes are getting caught up in the mix at a concerning rate. You certainly remember several Iowa and Iowa State athletes getting in trouble for an illegal betting scandal in 2023. I wrote in Civic Skinny for CITYVIEW that “the 17 players involved made slightly more than 10,000 wagers, and between the 12 athletes who had their money wagered listed in the complaints, more than $84,000 in bets were placed.”

Yes, $84,000. By college students! That’s a few tuitions and then some. The problems don’t stop there, though, as professional leagues have been dealing with their fair share of headaches. Just recently, NBA player Jontay Porter was given a lifetime ban for gambling on himself and telling others to do the same. Fellow player Malik Beasley is currently under investigation for the same reason. 

Bleacher Report put together a summary of five incidents the MLB has dealt with since 2024 alone, which includes its biggest star, Shohei Ohtani, and his translator. Five players were suspended in June 2024; an umpire was fired in February 2025 amid a gambling probe. And now, two players have been placed on leave thanks to a gambling probe, one of which is Emmanuel Clase, one of the best closing pitchers in the sport. 

These teams and leagues continue to enrich themselves thanks to the sportsbook dollars but turn around and frown at their players for participating. If gambling on the sport by the players harms the integrity of the game, why should these franchises be allowed to promote them? Why should the “worldwide leader” in sports journalism be allowed to open its own sportsbook and bombard its audience with spreads, lines, player totals and more? Rules for thee but not for me, as the saying goes. 

Without a doubt, plenty of blame falls on the players involved in this. It is well known that if you are a professional athlete, making millions of dollars, gambling should be the last thing on your mind. However, the people who are paying them are taking the money made from gambling. It’s like if alcoholics anonymous was sponsored by Jack Daniels. It’s like if the Iowa DOT were sponsored by NASCAR. How can you expect one thing of your players, but promote the opposite at the same time? 

Is my throwing $10 down on the Iowa State vs. Kansas State game going to completely upend the sporting world as we know it? Probably not. But when you set this double standard between franchises/leagues and their players, you’re begging for trouble.