Sports

Iowa State football’s top stars returned for 2025 run despite revenue gap: ‘We want to win a title’

Frisco, Texas – Iowa State had a really historic season in 2024, establishing a program record with 11 victories. The cyclones played in the Big 12 championship match for the first time and beat Miami in the Bowl Pop-Tarts. Around the program, however, it seems a little unsatisfactory.

“There are a lot of guys who come back to a team that feels that they have underestimated,” said offensive line Tyler Miller at CBS Sports. “Yes, it’s a great season in the history of the state of Iowa, but in the end, our goal is to win the match in December in the Big 12 championship and we did not do this.”

A “big season” sells fairly short. The program undergoes an unprecedented period of success under coach Matt Campbell. The 11-2 campaign was the seventh winning season in eight years, corresponding to the previous 35 years of pre-Campbell State of Iowa.

2025 Big 12 Football Preason Sond

Cody Nagel

2025 Big 12 Football Preason Sond

But for the 113rd consecutive year, it did not end with a conference championship. Cyclones have not won a conference crown since 1912.

To get another chance, the Iowa State list has done something unusual. According to Campbell, more than 20 players on the list have put less money to come back for additional years of eligibility. Despite the construction of a list of conference title caliber, Iowa State does not finance the full share of $ 20.5 million income in its first season (most programs will put around $ 13 million in football).

“We are not completely there yet,” Campbell told CBS Sports. “I think we are working on it and I hope we can be there as we continue in this process. But, in terms of all the money allocated for this year, we will not be there.”

Thus, once again, the state of Iowa is disadvantaged. The Sharks have bypassed some of the best players on the list, including the quarter Rocco Becht, the tight winger Gabe Burkle and the defensive rear Jeremiah Cooper. Everyone finally decided to come back to try to improve and build towards a conference championship race.

In the end, 14 runners come back for the Iowa State before a 2025 Pivot season. Cyclones were able to be buyers of the transfer portal, adding that the Chase Sowell and Xavier Townsend receptors. Most of the list, however, is full of internal development.

“I think this group came back with a lot of goal, understanding what we were able to accomplish last year and also when we had some shortcomings,” said Campbell. “They were able to go to work and be humbly able to say, here are the areas that we must be better.”

When Campbell became head coach for the first time at Toledo at only 31 years old, he wrote three words on a piece of paper: recruiting, keeping, developing.

Fourteen years later, he still has these words written on his desk in Ames, Iowa. University football has changed, but Campbell’s values ​​did not do so. And, at Iowa State, he sees another opportunity to win on the biggest scenes in sport.

“We would literally be the first team to do so, the only team in the history of the state of Iowa to win a Big 12 championship,” said Becht. “It is in our mind and we want it because we want these expectations. We want to be at this level.”



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