USA Today sends brutal message on Kansas State and Iowa State’s reality after Week 0 in Dublin, Ireland

The Kansas State Wildcats and Iowa State Cyclones traveled nearly 8,000 miles each to and from Dublin, Ireland, for their Week 0 opener. “Farmageddon” delivered from an on-field perspective, with Iowa State coming out on top, 24-21, in the sloppy, rainy defensive battle at Aviva Stadium.

It was a great game for fans of defensive football. Rocco Becht and Avery Johnson delivered some heroics from under center, with two touchdowns each.

Ireland got good football, but as shown on the ESPN broadcast, when footage was shown of Irish fans being asked how many points a touchdown was worth, and the common answers were four or five, Ireland wasn’t exactly clamoring for two Midwestern schools’ 109-year tradition.

There wasn’t even an ESPN College Gameday crew on hand for the contest, despite the game being on the World Wide Leader’s airwaves.

USA Today’s Paul Meyerberg revealed the brutal reality for both teams: they traveled a long way to figure out very little about what the season has in store.

Meyerberg rubbed salt in the wound for K-State following their loss, reminding them of how far they traveled just to uphold their recent losing standard in the rivalry game.

“There just aren’t enough data points to form any big-picture takeaway: Kansas State could be really good, which means Iowa State might be terrific; both teams could be pretty average; both teams might be pretty good, which seems like the most likely scenario,” Meyerberg wrote.

“Thinking down the line, though, you can see how the Cyclones’ win ends up carrying serious weight as a tiebreaker in a Big 12 that once again looks anything but predictable. Honestly, the Wildcats didn’t have to go all the way to Dublin to lose Farmageddon – they’d been doing that just fine stateside for the past seven years.”

For fans on their couch, Saturday’s Week 0 action delivered in every way. From the fumble-filled first quarter between the Cyclones and Wildcats, until Kansei Matsuzawa’s game-winning 38-yard field goal in the Hawai’i Rainbow Warriors’ 23-20 win over the Stanford Cardinal.

For the sport, it was a reminder that sometimes less can be more.

Fewer international flights for the first game of the college football season moving forward is a good start.