The Iowa Hawkeyes take on the Iowa State Cyclones. Check out our college football odds series for our Iowa Iowa State prediction and pick. Find how to watch Iowa Iowa State.

Here we go. It's one of the most-discussed college football betting situations of every season, the annual Cy-Hawk game between Iowa and ISU. The two teams regularly play low-scoring slugfests and generate low over-under totals before kickoff. The under usually cashes in this game, but there is always the possibility that a modest bump in points could lead to some over tickets cashing. There is also the in-play avenue in which bettors hope for a scoreless first quarter and then jump on the over for a total in the mid-20s.

There are several college football games whose totals are regularly a big point of betting discussion, far more than the point spread or the money line. One is this game. The other main “total” games are the service academy games involving Air Force, Army, and Navy. Some of the Pac-12 games this year involving superstar quarterbacks (Washington versus USC, USC versus Oregon, Oregon versus Washington) will be heavily discussed in relationship to how high the over-under total will be.

It will be fascinating to see if Iowa-Iowa State lives up — or should we say “down”? — to its low-scoring reputation.

Here are the Iowa-Iowa State College Football odds, courtesy of FanDuel.

College Football Odds: Iowa-Iowa State Odds

Iowa Hawkeyes: -3.5 (-120)

Iowa State Cyclones: +3.5 (-102)

Over: 36.5 (-110)

Under: 36.5 (-110)

How To Watch Iowa vs. Iowa State

TV: Fox

Stream: Fox Sports app

Time: 3:30 p.m. ET/12:30 p.m. PT

*Watch Iowa vs Iowa State LIVE on fuboTV (click for free trial)*

Why Iowa Could Cover the Spread

The Hawkeyes could cover the spread because they have produced a quarterback upgrade. Cade McNamara, who was a College Football Playoff quarterback at Michigan under Jim Harbaugh, now gets his chance to run the Iowa offense with a superb defense supporting him. McNamara was really good in the first quarter last week against Utah State before cooling off as the game went on. Should Iowa fans be concerned that McNamara didn't play four great quarters? It's up for debate. However, it can be said that McNamara is still adjusting to a new situation with new teammates. If chemistry wasn't perfect in the first game of the season, it is reasonable to expect improvements in the second game of 2023. If those improvements do occur, Iowa should have the upper hand over ISU, which profoundly struggled to score last year and doesn't seem to have made the same quarterback upgrade Iowa has made.

Why Iowa State Could Cover the Spread

The reality that this game has been so low-scoring over the years means that the winning team is rarely scoring more than 21 or 24 points. If the winning team isn't posting a large point total, it stands to reason that the game will be very close and go down to the final few minutes of regulation. Because of that dynamic in this rivalry game, any team getting a field goal or more on the point spread has a decent chance of covering that spread. Would anyone be overly surprised if Iowa wins 17-14 or 16-13? If one of those scores is indeed the final score of this game, ISU would cover without winning the game outright.

Final Iowa-Iowa State Prediction & Pick

The Iowa offense under Cade McNamara might be better than expected, so we're not going to pound the under — not this time. Iowa looks like a noticeably better team. That's the play here: Iowa minus the points.

Final Iowa-Iowa State Prediction & Pick: Iowa -3.5