Football: Hawkeyes scheduled to 2014 with non-conference games
The Big Ten is slated to announce a divisional split soon. The league may switch to a nine-game schedule in the not-too-distant future. Iowa continues to schedule for the future, knowing things may change in a hurry.
Currently, Iowa has its complete non-conference schedule in football completed through 2014.
“Of course it’s subject to change,” Iowa Associate Athletics Director Mark Abbott said. “But we have contracts for all of these games, and we expect to move forward with them.”
Next fall, Iowa will play Tennessee Tech, Pittsburgh and Louisiana-Monroe at home, and travel to Iowa State.
In 2012, Iowa faces Northern Illinois at Soldier Field in Chicago, and hosts Iowa State, Northern Iowa and Central Michigan in Kinnick Stadium.
In 2013, Northern Illinois, Missouri State and Western Michigan come to Iowa City, and Iowa travels to Iowa State.
In 2014, Northern Iowa, Ball State and Iowa State are here, and Iowa travels to Pittsburgh.
“We have games scheduled out to 2017,” Abbott said. “What happens in the future, we don’t know to this point. But we’re moving forward with scheduling long before any discussion of conference expansion.”
Abbott conceded that a nine-game conference schedule could put a snafu in the Hawkeyes’ plans, and if it arrives sooner may require Iowa to rearrange or cancel some non-conference games.
“What we do with our future schedules is pretty much up in the air right now,” Abbott said. “We’ll have to wait to see what transpires.”
Abbott said fans want significant home-and-home games with teams from major BCS conferences, but sometimes those teams don’t want to play Iowa.
“Some schools don’t want to come to a certain place because they don’t see a particular advantage from a recruiting standpoint,” Abbott said. “We run into that.
“We’re looking at those games in the same way.”
Reach Ryan Suchomel at 339-7368 or rsuchomel@press-citizen.com.
Category: Iowa Hawkeyes Football
