The Nebraska Cornhuskers and Penn State Nittany Lions, two of the most successful and tradition-bound college football programs in the country, saw all they wanted to see Saturday of the fellows from Iowa.
Having made a return to the nation's elite, 12th-ranked Penn State battled back against Iowa only to lose to the Iowa Hawkeyes in overtime, 42-35.
Nebraska, meanwhile, has been been teetering on the edge this season. Iowa State may have pushed the Cornhuskers over that edge Saturday by rolling to a 36-14 victory.
With top-ranked Miami taking the weekend off and both the second and third-rated teams having few problems with lightly-regarded opposition, the spotlight focused on the two Division I-A teams from Iowa.
In State College, Pa., Iowa jumped to a 22-point lead thanks to three touchdown passes from Brad Banks. And then, when Penn State forced the game into overtime, Banks threw another scoring pass, a six-yarder to C.J. Jones that gave the Hawkeyes the victory.
Fred Russell carried 35 times for 142 yards and one score for the Hawkeyes (4-1, 1-0 Big Ten), who defeated the Nittany Lions for the third straight season and for the second straight year in overtime.
Penn State (3-1, 1-0) had endured back-to-back losing seasons, but the program appeared to be back on course after opening the year with three straight wins, including a lopsided triumph over Nebraska.
The Nittany Lions dug themselves a deep hole before tying the game on an eight-yard pass from Zack Mills to Bryant Johnson with 80 seconds left.
But Banks, a senior making his first Big Ten Conference start, kept his composure, finding Jones over the middle on the first possession of overtime. It was the second touchdown catch of the day for Jones, who caught seven passes for 46 yards.
In Ames, the big question was whether Nebraska could bounce back from its loss to Penn State against a solid Iowa State team. The Cyclones took advantage of the situation to overwhelm the Cornhuskers.
Seneca Wallace ran for two touchdowns and passed for another as the 21st-ranked Cyclones ended years of frustration and recorded one of the biggest wins in school history.
Wallace threw a three-yard touchdown pass to Lane Danielsen in the second quarter and scored on runs of one and seven yards in the second half. It was the Big 12 Conference opener for both teams.
Iowa State improved to 5-1 for the first time since 1980, when it won its first five games only to lose its next five. But this Cyclones team shows no signs of letting up and has emerged as a legitimate contender in the Big 12 North.
The Cyclones had lost the last nine meetings in the series, allowing 40 or more points in eight of those games. But they toyed with the Cornhuskers, outgaining them, 412 yards to 273.
Nebraska (3-2) continued a sudden and dramatic decline of a program that ended last season with lopsided losses to Colorado and Miami.
The Cornhuskers will likely fall out of the national rankings for the first time since 1981.
While Iowa and Iowa State were posting big wins, No. 2 Texas coasted past Tulane, 49-0; and No. 3 Oklahoma defeated South Florida, 31-14.
Elsewhere in the top 10, No. 5 Virginia Tech blanked Western Michigan, 30-0; No. 6 Ohio State defeated Indiana, 45-17; No. 7 Georgia whipped New Mexico State, 41-10; and No. 9 Florida fought off Kentucky, 41-34.
The bigest victim in the national rankings this week was Florida State, which lost an overtime in the rain Thursday night to Louisville, 26-20.
