The 2025 college football season opened in Dublin, where No. 22 Iowa State edged No. 17 Kansas State 24-21 in the Aer Lingus College Football Classic before a capacity crowd at Aviva Stadium. The neutral-site matchup, the first of the year for the revamped Big 12, doubled as an early College Football Playoff résumé test for both ranked programs. Cyclones quarterback Rocco Becht threw the season’s inaugural touchdown—a short strike to tight end Brett Eskildsen—and finished 14-of-28 for 183 yards with two scoring passes and a seven-yard rushing touchdown. A sloppy first half featured four lost fumbles, leaving Iowa State ahead 7-0 after the opening quarter and the teams tied 7-7 at the break. Iowa State seized a 24-14 fourth-quarter lead when Becht capped a short field with his rushing score following a defensive fourth-down stop. Kansas State answered immediately as Avery Johnson connected with transfer wideout Jerand Bradley on a 65-yard touchdown, but the Wildcats never touched the ball again. Facing fourth-and-3 at the Kansas State 16, head coach Matt Campbell kept his offense on the field, and Becht’s 15-yard completion to running back Carson Hansen allowed the Cyclones to kneel out the final 2:18. The victory gives Iowa State its sixth win in seven meetings with Kansas State since 2020 and an early head-to-head tiebreaker in a Big 12 race that no longer includes Texas and Oklahoma. The contest also marked ESPN’s on-air debut of a new college-football graphics package, adding fresh visuals to a season that began with drama on and off the field.