How much pull does the AD have w game times?

HawkWT

HawkWT

Well-Known Member
Looking down the Iowa schedule so far, and seeing that every game is at 11:00 is depressing for an out of towner like myself. We love tailgating and have invested a lot of money into all the equipment, tents, flags, etc.

To get up after a long workweek at 2 or 3 am to get to Iowa City in time to have fun just isn't realistic every week. The average fan can't afford to donate $ for season tickets, pay one of the highest prices in the country for the actual tickets, and then rent a hotel room 7 nights a year.

I know TV is the major factor, but if the Athletic Department has a say in this, they're going to get an angry letter from me, or 10.:confused:
 
HawkWT said:
pay one of the highest prices in the country for the actual tickets.
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I don't think this is true.

The AD has very little say in game times. I do think they have some pull in suggesting night games, but its not huge.
 
TV $$$$ rules

I was curious though when the Iowa/ISU game time would be announced? Its less than 3 months away
 
mopkins said:
TV $$$$ rules

I was curious though when the Iowa/ISU game time would be announced? Its less than 3 months away
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I don't know if iowa.247sports.com knows something we don't or if this is a mistake. But their homepage shows 11:00 starts for every game except the last 4.
 
I fully agree. I am probably going to have to miss two of the early start games due to travel considerations. Also, 11:00 games are just not the same as a 2:00 game or a night game as far as the crowd being involved (especially the students). In my opinion if the BTN wants a game to start at 11:00 Central time to fill that time slot on their network they should do that with one of the games played in the Eastern time zone like home games for Indiana, Purdue, Rutgers or Maryland. They could start those games at 12:00 Eastern time to accommodate their fans. Let us in the Central time zone start at 2:00 or 7:00 our time.
 
Barta suggests that it is out of their hands, but I do not see why every other school, outside of maybe Wisc, gets some nite games, and Iowa is simply not a good enough program to warrant anything but 11 oclock starts. Maybe Iowa needs to score more points to get better tv slots? Makes no sense. At worst we are a top half program in the league but get treated like a bottom 2 program.
 
I imagine that this makes it very hard to get recruits in for games when they have to maybe play a night HS game the day before and somehow get to CR by plane in time for the game.
 
JHHawk said:
Barta suggests that it is out of their hands, but I do not see why every other school, outside of maybe Wisc, gets some nite games, and Iowa is simply not a good enough program to warrant anything but 11 oclock starts. Maybe Iowa needs to score more points to get better tv slots? Makes no sense. At worst we are a top half program in the league but get treated like a bottom 2 program.
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Iowa does seemingly downplay night games. But this year's Iowa home schedule really tied their hands on it, which resulted in zero night games.

Iowa has one home game in October (Indiana 10/11), and its homecoming, so its not going to be a night game. It has three November home games. Nebraska is a day game set in stone. Wisconsin is on 11/22.

The Gazette guys indicated that the Iowa athletic department suggested the 11/1 game against Northwestern as a night game. Apparently BTN or ABC/ESPN didn't show much interest in that tilt.
 
It's hard for me to believe it's only TV because the school has made statements on 2 occasions I remember (after the 2002 Iowa St game) and a about 4 years ago, when they shut down the student tailgating area.

Students change every yr, so I am tired of this excuse by the Athletic Department. Don't open the student tailgate area at the crack of dawn or crack down on the excessive tailgaters, but quit punishing 99% of the fan and revenue base.
I wouldn't be surprised if the Athletic Department begged for all 11 am games, seriously.
 
HawkWT said:
It's hard for me to believe it's only TV because the school has made statements on 2 occasions I remember (after the 2002 Iowa St game) and a about 4 years ago, when they shut down the student tailgating area.

Students change every yr, so I am tired of this excuse by the Athletic Department. Don't open the student tailgate area at the crack of dawn or crack down on the excessive tailgaters, but quit punishing 99% of the fan and revenue base.
I wouldn't be surprised if the Athletic Department begged for all 11 am games, seriously.
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It would be interesting to be a fly on the wall to see if it is the BTN, AD or Sally Mason that decides the game times. I can tell you one thing, the reason I have not purchased season tickets the past three years is because of all the 11:00 games. I can only make it to 2 or 3 games per year so I take my chances with scalpers. If all the games were afternoon or evening starts I would probably be able to travel to every game and go with the season ticket package.
 
I have a feeling the UNI game will be a 2:30 start. It's also possible Iowa St will be 2:30. Ball St is pretty much set in stone for 11 though. The B1G games of course will be decided later. Wisconsin would be a candidate for a 2:30 start if both teams perform as expected up until that point.
 
I bet UNI would be 2:30. UNI wants to bus down day of game play game and go back thereby keeping all the guarantee and not spending anything on hotels.
 
No way it's just TV. Out of Indiana's 7 home games last year, 6 of those were played at 230 or later. Just thank god the networks don't give Iowa the option of 8am kicks
 
HawkWT said:
It's hard for me to believe it's only TV because the school has made statements on 2 occasions I remember (after the 2002 Iowa St game) and a about 4 years ago, when they shut down the student tailgating area.

Students change every yr, so I am tired of this excuse by the Athletic Department. Don't open the student tailgate area at the crack of dawn or crack down on the excessive tailgaters, but quit punishing 99% of the fan and revenue base.
I wouldn't be surprised if the Athletic Department begged for all 11 am games, seriously.
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Also who is the idiot who gives us two off Saturdays in October?
 
vgshwk said:
Also who is the idiot who gives us two off Saturdays in October?
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This is truly unfortunate....October is THE month for college football in the Midwest. Instead, we get 5 frigid games in November.....we seem to be the default team...''iowa fans are so loyal,we can always screw them and they will still attend''.... hate the way the season lays out this year....5 games in extreme heat, 5 games in extreme cold, and 2 games in real football season weather. Last season, it was cold and very windy for almost all Iowa games....so maybe we are just cursed.
 
JHHawk said:
Barta suggests that it is out of their hands, but I do not see why every other school, outside of maybe Wisc, gets some nite games, and Iowa is simply not a good enough program to warrant anything but 11 oclock starts. Maybe Iowa needs to score more points to get better tv slots? Makes no sense. At worst we are a top half program in the league but get treated like a bottom 2 program.
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Perhaps Barta could do more behind the scenes (not sure) but it's not a big mystery to me why Iowa doesn't have night games. The networks don't seem to have anything against Iowa, they had no issue giving Iowa lots of night/2:30 time slots in 2009 and 2010 when Iowa either had a really good team or was thought to have a good team going into the season (2010).

Combine that with not playing OSU, Michigan, MSU or PSU (all have been night game opponents in recent memory) and it's easier to understand why Iowa has the 11:00 kicks. Still surprised Iowa didn't get 1 night game this year, but hopefully a good season this year will produce more prime-time games in future seasons.
 
Look you guys, this isn't rocket surgery. Iowa is the small state, with the small school, and little national drawing power. Unless they're in major contention for something, they won't get premier time slots. It is 100% a smart economic decision.
 
YWinston said:
Look you guys, this isn't rocket surgery. Iowa is the small state, with the small school, and little national drawing power. Unless they're in major contention for something, they won't get premier time slots. It is 100% a smart economic decision.
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I didn't know rocket surgery existed.
 
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