The Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk Series is an annual athletic competition between

Iowa State University Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the ...

and the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 col ...

. On April 12, 2011, it was announced that the competition would be sponsored by the Iowa Corn Promotion Board and the Iowa Corn Growers Association. From 2004 to 2011, it was sponsored by

Hy-Vee Hy-Vee, Inc. () is an employee-owned chain of supermarkets in the Midwestern and Southern United States, with more than 280 locations in Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and soon Indiana, Kentucky, ...

and called the Hy-Vee Cy-Hawk Series. The competition includes all head-to-head regular season competitions between the two archrival universities in all shared sports. Iowa State University leads the series 9-8-1 after clinching the latest title in December 2022.

Competition format

Each regular-season game, match, or meet between the

Iowa State Cyclones The Iowa State Cyclones are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Iowa State University, located in Ames. The university is a member of the Big 12 Conference and competes in NCAA Division I, fielding 16 varsity teams (6 men's an ...

and the Iowa Hawkeyes is counted toward the series championship. The winning team in each sport earns two points for their university (except for football, which is worth three points). In the event that a contest ends in a tie, the points are split. For academics, each school earns a single point if the graduation rate for student athletes exceeds the overall student body rate. The university with the most overall points at the end of the academic year is awarded the Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk Series Trophy (not to be confused with the Cy-Hawk Trophy, which is awarded to the winner of the schools' annual football game). If both schools tie on points at the end of the academic year (as in 2015–16), the school that won the trophy the previous year keeps the series trophy.

History

The Cy-Hawk Series Trophy originated in 2004. Iowa State currently leads with nine overall titles (with one defense in a tie) compared to Iowa with eight. The two schools tied the series in 2015–16 with Iowa State defending the trophy for another year. Due to the COVID pandemic, the Cy-Hawk Series was paused in 2020–2021.