Howe: 9 B1G Games, ISU Paint Iowa in Corner for Non-Con Contests

[RobHowe]

Tuesday's announcement of Middle Tennessee St. rounding out the '19 football schedule in '19 was met with a collective yawn from Hawkeye Nation. As HN's Rob Howe writes, the pattern isn't likely to change:

LINK

 

[guffus]

All Iowa needs to do is give up 1 home game once every 4 years and it can play 2 more P5 non-conference teams in those 4 years.

A reasonable trade off, I do believe.

 

[tksirius]

 

[tksirius]

Seriously, playing the Cyclowns every year is just helping them and hurting us. Why help them be relevant? I don't get it.

 

[eyekwah]

I'm not sure when the ISU series comes up for renewal, but it is time to have a break from playing ISU each year. Iowa doesn't play UNI every year and there is no reason to play ISU every year.

 

[bitmap]

At least Pitt was relevant. Pitt, Arizona, ND, MO - To be taken seriously risks must be taken.

 

[hawkdrummer1]

I'm not sure when the ISU series comes up for renewal, but it is time to have a break from playing ISU each year. Iowa doesn't play UNI every year and there is no reason to play ISU every year.

Iowa shouldn't play UNI at all

 

[RobHowe]

All Iowa needs to do is give up 1 home game once every 4 years and it can play 2 more P5 non-conference teams in those 4 years.

A reasonable trade off, I do believe.

Iowa isn't going to give up any home games. The other Big Ten schools aren't either.

Could they? Sure. Will they? Doubtful.

 

[RobHowe]

Iowa shouldn't play UNI at all

Panthers were on schedule before the Big Ten edict came down not to play FCS schools. This will be the last time we play them for the foreseeable future.

 

[SteveGarvey1]

Play two home and homes with ISU every 10 years so as to not totally give up on the rivalry. But for the sake of spicing things up, let's not play them every year and schedule some sexier teams.

 

[BigD]

I think Kirk is taking a huge risk by scheduling nonconference teams like these that could seriously put at risk his teams even breaching the .500 mark every year. I don't know why he would schedule all these tough teams when he already has to play nine B1G games.

 

[RobHowe]

Play two home and homes with ISU every 10 years so as to not totally give up on the rivalry. But for the sake of spicing things up, let's not play them every year and schedule some sexier teams.

I've heard from quite a few folks who feel that switching ISU series to something other than an annual matchup would be preferred if it meant adding a different Power 5 school to the schedule.

Personally, I would miss it if we didn't play the Cyclones every year. But, that's just me.

I might be swayed if the replacement was an opponent more attractive than Pitt, Syracuse or one of the Arizona schools. No offense to them, but I'd rather play ISU. At least there's some intrigue there and it's good for the state.

 

[Hawkfnntn]

Play two home and homes with ISU every 10 years so as to not totally give up on the rivalry. But for the sake of spicing things up, let's not play them every year and schedule some sexier teams.

If that'd be the compromise to dropping them all together I’d be for it. We can’t sit on our hands and pretend we don’t have a scheduling problem to address. We certainly can’t sit here and cry to the college football world that we should have a seat at the table with the big boys when we aren’t scheduling similarly. It sounds like it all hinges on ISU. Either they need to get relevant (Something I don’t want and regardless of that won’t happen) or we drop them and schedule tougher teams. Nothing irks me more then how we can be so close to being with the big boys yet so far. I’d rather be 9-3 with a couple of tough losses than 11-1 and looked at as a ‘fraud’ by all the talking heads in college football. That’s just getting old.

 

[IAHAWK1982]

Iowa is not going to give the games versus Iowa State. It is a huge money maker for both schools. Sold out stadiums and tons of money spent in each town. As far as scheduling other Power 5 schools on top of playing Iowa State, it's not going to happen. Iowa keeps getting crap for a "weak" non-conference schedule, but look at the SEC they all typically have "weak" schools on their schedule and one of those is typically late in the season.

 

[BryceC]

Seriously, playing the Cyclowns every year is just helping them and hurting us. Why help them be relevant? I don't get it.

I've long argued that playing Iowa ISN'T helping ISU anymore. It's a bad deal for ISU at this point. They need to schedule the worst 3 teams they possibly can in the noncon to guarantee three wins and get the extra home gate every other year.

Here are the last 6 years of ISU football attendance, with the attendance for the Iowa game:

2016: 52,557
2015: 56,519, 61,500
2014: 52,197
2013: 55,274, 56,800
2012: 55,361
2011: 53,647, 56,085

The Iowa game does give a bump, and the tickets are more expensive than other noncon games (for some of them) but it's not some huge increase over the rest of the season or other years where we don't play. A 4K ticket boost over the season average doesn't make it worth it financially to lose a game every other year, especially considering it's an early game with good weather where the ticket sales are strong anyway. I would argue not getting piss pounded by Iowa would help later games as well, plus the fact that there is just a better chance of beating a patsy.

 

[RobHowe]

Except Iowa State has won three of the last six games against Iowa and two of the last three at Kinnick.

 

[BryceC]

Agreed. That's 50%. If ISU wants to consistently get to bowl games with a 9 game conference schedule they need to be winning 90% of their noncon games. They need to schedule like Baylor and KSU, two teams that have actually gotten out of the cellar.

 

[RobHowe]

No. I see your point. I don't think that's how they view it based on history the last 20 years.

I think they see more value in taking their chances with Iowa and improving their brand. If it was a sure thing they were going to lose to Iowa, they might change their mind. It isn't anymore. They believe they can make bowls while still playing us.

 

[thetrza]

The schedule is holding back our National Championship resume, and the B1G West and Iowa State are not helping either.

 

[BryceC]

No. I see your point. I don't think that's how they view it based on history the last 20 years.

I think they see more value in taking their chances with Iowa and improving their brand. If it was a sure thing they were going to lose to Iowa, they might change their mind. It isn't anymore. They believe they can make bowls while still playing us.

I agree that's probably what they think. However I'm arguing it's stupid, as they have never won more than 3 conference games since they expanded to 9. Historically ISU needs to beat Iowa to make a bowl. If they lose they are out, and it's early September, and the entire fanbase knows it.

Nothing against Iowa either, but I'm not sure how much the ISU brand can be improved by beating Iowa. As you said, ISU has won fairly consistently against Iowa but it hasn't elevated the program. We've tried the "beating Iowa and improving the brand" method and it just hasn't worked. I'm willing to try something different but apparently the admin isn't.