Mother nature did Iowa State no favors, and neither did Big 12 schedulers, who handed the Cyclones not only the most difficult early-season stretch in the conference but arguably in the country.

Two games into the 2018 season, Iowa State has played the most difficult strength of schedule in college football according to Sagarin, and the schedule doesn’t figure to let up in the season’s first half. The Cyclones’ season-opening cancellation against South Dakota State has intensified a first-half slate that was already lined up to be one of the most difficult. Now it is likely the most difficult.

After opening with an Iowa team that is on the fringe of the AP Top 25 (No. 26) and a No. 5 Oklahoma team that is a top College Football Playoff contender, Iowa State gets an unranked Akron — albeit one that just upset the Big Ten’s Northwestern — followed by what could be three consecutive ranked opponents in TCU (No. 17), Oklahoma State (No. 15) and West Virginia (No. 12).

As the rankings and first-half schedules stand now, Iowa State is in line to be the only school among 65 in Power 5 to play four of its first six against Top-25 opponents. Ten others, including Texas and Texas Tech, have three. Seven, including Oklahoma and West Virginia, have none.

Iowa State Arkansas Auburn Kentucky NC State North Carolina Notre Dame Stanford Tennessee Texas Texas Tech

So Iowa State, at 0-2, faces the Big 12 gauntlet until the midway point. Though it’s no surprise that Matt Campbell is uninterested in thinking about it.

“It doesn’t even matter how-many-games-stretch. It’s the next game,” Campbell said Saturday when asked about the upcoming schedule. “The next game is really important for us because we’ve got to continue to grow. It’s not even about who we play. It’s about us. When we worry about improvement, you saw us today. When we worry about other things, we get ourselves in trouble.”

Campbell is right. If Iowa State resembles the team that lost 37-27 to Oklahoma on Saturday, it gives itself a fighting chance in each of its remaining 10 games.

The key for Iowa State: Weather the early-season storm.

Iowa State must beat Akron, a game in which it opened as an 18.5-point favorite and one ESPN’s Football Power Index gives it a 91.1 percent chance to win Saturday in Ames. Then it needs to manage its way through that difficult three-game stretch. Calling that the must-win stretch is probably a stretch of its own. The Cyclones can reach the postseason without it. But if Iowa State manages to reach the midway point of the season at 3-3, it could be in line for results fans dreamed of before the season. At 2-4, it still gives itself footing for a bowl game. The challenge would come at 1-5 when pressure would be on.

Of course, Campbell and Co. don’t think in those terms and for good reason. Iowa State showed last season and through two games in 2018 it’s capable of playing with Top-5 teams and beating them. There is no reason for the Cyclones to not feel they have a chance to win any of those three games against TCU, Oklahoma State or West Virginia, even if the first two are on the road.

But anyone who looks at Iowa State’s schedule sees the daunting task and can begin working their way through the final 10 games. If Iowa State can weather the coming four-week stretch, a friendlier second-half schedule awaits. Following the Oct. 20 bye week, Iowa State could be favored in five of its final six and ESPN’s FPI in fact gives it favorable win probabilities in five of them.

vs. Texas Tech 56.9 percent at Kansas 69.1 percent vs. Baylor 69.7 percent at Texas 27.8 percent vs. Kansas State 75.7 percent vs. Incarnate Word 99.6 percent

Win probabilities and odds, of course, don’t always pan out and the Cyclones showed multiple times in 2017. Iowa State could very well be favored in five of the final six, but that list currently includes a Kansas State team that has won the last 10 in the series.

Yet if Iowa State can find a couple wins in the next month, it would still be set up for strong postseason odds, even if nobody is thinking that far ahead.

“I’m just focused on Akron,” receiver Hakeem Butler said Saturday. “Game’s over, it’s time to worry about the next opponent.”