One ESPN announcer got his sides of the Iowa-Iowa State rivalry all mixed up during Saturday’s game.
Iowa State faced off on Saturday against Oklahoma State at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Okla. During a break in the action in the first quarter, Richard Cross, who was calling the game on ESPNU, made a rough mistake.
Cross was narrating a retrospective of Iowa State’s season thus far. At the end of his remarks before the play, Cross said, “It’s been a season of streaks for the Hawkeyes.”
Here is the video.
We know how much Iowa State fans appreciate it when an announcer refers to them as the Hawkeyes… pic.twitter.com/ffn0pgzrzi
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 29, 2025
Of course, Iowa State’s team name is actually the Cyclones (which was visibly written on their helmets during Saturday’s game too). The Hawkeyes are Iowa State’s hated in-state rivals Iowa instead.
The rivalry game between the two teams already occurred back in September. Iowa State won that game by a final score of 16-13 to take home the Cy-Hawk Trophy. The Cyclones also went on to win on Saturday against Oklahoma State by a final score of 20-13.
Mistakes obviously happen to any announcer who calls enough games, so we should probably cut Cross a little bit of slack here. But ESPN as a whole continues to be up and down in their coverage this year, and the on-air mistakes have certainly been plentiful recently for The Worldwide Leader.
