Scheduling agreement with Northern Iowa

[ajk4st8]

I would prefer to see UNI struggle financially. I dont like paying them a large paycheck everytime they play us.

Id let them play in JTS, but for substantially less money than another team would accept.

No reason we need to help our our competition.

[Cydkar]

Jesus ******. Iowa and ISU are BCS teams. UNI is not. Your first statement is completely wrong and outrageous.

Also, we got a W. We got to play a ton of backups who would normally not play. Team moral is improved. We got Nealy some snaps. We got a lot from that game. We are only asking for 1 of those cupcakes a year. ONE! Out of 12!

And we still can!

[shagcarpetjesus]

Let me begin by saying that I'm not one of those fans that is "afraid" to play UNI. I have no problem with playing UNI on a regular basis. But I'm definitely one of those fans that thinks this sucks because there is going to be very little non-conference variety in the schedule. If we feel the need to keep both Iowa & UNI on the schedule on a regular basis, then I'd suggest that we move to playing each team on alternating years in the future.

As it stands right now, ISU will never play another good non-con BCS team outside of Iowa unless it happens in a bowl game. Personally, as a huge college football fan (and not just an ISU fan) I think that's horribly boring for the fanbase and I'd argue the players as well. I'd love to see something like the following:

Year 1
UNI
mid-level FBS team1
@ Arizona

Year 2
other FCS team
@ mid-level FBS team1
Iowa

Year 3
UNI
mid-level FBS team2
Arizona

Year 4
other FCS team
@mid-level FBS team2
@ Iowa

I used Arizona just as an example, but you could throw any Pac 12, SEC, ACC, B1G (other than Iowa), etc. team in there. You still keep the tradition & in-state benefits of playing UNI & Iowa, but ISU will also get the opportunity to test itself on occasion against teams from other "power" conferences. And without Iowa on the schedule every year, ISU could even schedule up & put somebody really fun on the schedule on occasion.

I might be in the minority, but I find the prospect of every season basically being UNI, MAC team, Iowa to start off disappointing. I'd hate to think that ISU will never have the chance to play a non-con game like the Florida State game a few years ago.

[Cydkar]

And nomination for dbag of the week goes to...

55,000 people just showed up to the Western Illinois game. I guess Cyclone fans will show up for a good product from ISU only regardless of the opponent, that or many of our fans aren't smart people and think W. Ill is a powerhouse.

this

[IASTATE4LIFE]

I don't mind the level of competition that UNI brings to the table. They are usually a pretty solid football team. And I don't think Iowa State should be afraid to play that talented of a team. I don't want a cupcake on our schedule. Cupcakes are for wussies like the b10 team to the east.

I do however have a problem playing UNI all the time. The biggest problem is nobody outside of the state of Iowa and maybe a couple bordering states have any respect whatsoever for their program. Most people don't even know they have a football team. I would rather see us play another cellar dweller from another big bcs conference. How about Minnesota? Boston College? Rutgers? NC State? Duke? Indiana? Miami? Oregon state? washington state? All FBS teams that would give us a "better" win, and most years I would say an easier win than UNI. you can't tell me our fan base wouldn't get up for a out of conference legitimate school.

[UICyclone]

Let me begin by saying that I'm not one of those fans that is "afraid" to play UNI. I have no problem with playing UNI on a regular basis. But I'm definitely one of those fans that thinks this sucks because there is going to be very little non-conference variety in the schedule. If we feel the need to keep both Iowa & UNI on the schedule on a regular basis, then I'd suggest that we move to playing each team on alternating years in the future.

As it stands right now, ISU will never play another good non-con BCS team outside of Iowa unless it happens in a bowl game. Personally, as a huge college football fan (and not just an ISU fan) I think that's horribly boring for the fanbase and I'd argue the players as well. I'd love to see something like the following:

Year 1
UNI
mid-level FBS team
@ Arizona

Year 2
other FCS team
@ mid-level FBS team
Iowa

Year 3
UNI
mid-level FBS team
Arizona

Year 4
other FCS team
@mid-level FBS team
@ Iowa

I used Arizona just as an example, but you could throw any Pac 12, SEC, ACC, other B1G team in there. You still keep the tradition & in-state benefits of playing UNI & Iowa, but ISU will also get to opportunity to test itself on occasion against teams from other "power" conferences. I might be in the minority, but I find the prospect of every season basically being UNI, MAC team, Iowa to start off disappointing. I'd hate to think that ISU will never have the chance to play a non-con game like the Florida State game a few years ago.

Are you trying to say Tulsa, Toledo, North Dakota State, San Jose State, Akron and UNLV aren't exciting power teams?

[MNCyGuy]

I don't mind the level of competition that UNI brings to the table. They are usually a pretty solid football team. And I don't think Iowa State should be afraid to play that talented of a team. I don't want a cupcake on our schedule. Cupcakes are for wussies like the b10 team to the east.

I do however have a problem playing UNI all the time. The biggest problem is nobody outside of the state of Iowa and maybe a couple bordering states have any respect whatsoever for their program. Most people don't even know they have a football team. I would rather see us play another cellar dweller from another big bcs conference. How about Minnesota? Boston College? Rutgers? NC State? Duke? Indiana? Miami? Oregon state? washington state? All FBS teams that would give us a "better" win, and most years I would say an easier win than UNI. you can't tell me our fan base wouldn't get up for a out of conference legitimate school.

I'd rather have the home games, to be honest. We can't even get a 2-for-1 scheduling arrangement with MAC and C-USA teams. It would really suck to hit years where we only play 1 home non-conference game.

[The_Architect]

Knee-jerk reaction:

Considering what we're losing in 2013 I'm really not looking forward to playing UNI for the first game of the season - YIKES. I don't know if I could stomach a possible L to them.

[VeloClone]

I don't mind the level of competition that UNI brings to the table. They are usually a pretty solid football team. And I don't think Iowa State should be afraid to play that talented of a team. I don't want a cupcake on our schedule. Cupcakes are for wussies like the b10 team to the east.

I do however have a problem playing UNI all the time. The biggest problem is nobody outside of the state of Iowa and maybe a couple bordering states have any respect whatsoever for their program. Most people don't even know they have a football team. I would rather see us play another cellar dweller from another big bcs conference. How about Minnesota? Boston College? Rutgers? NC State? Duke? Indiana? Miami? Oregon state? washington state? All FBS teams that would give us a "better" win, and most years I would say an easier win than UNI. you can't tell me our fan base wouldn't get up for a out of conference legitimate school.

That's all fine and good but remember these two issues.

1. We don't know how good that school will be in X years when we actually get around to playing them. (UConn and Utah, anyone?) With UNI, I'm pretty sure we have an idea what the ceiling will likely be - no offense intended to UNI.
2. We will have to give up home games for this. Those teams are going to expect a balanced series one at our house, one at your house.

[Cydkar]

I don't mind the level of competition that UNI brings to the table. They are usually a pretty solid football team. And I don't think Iowa State should be afraid to play that talented of a team. I don't want a cupcake on our schedule. Cupcakes are for wussies like the b10 team to the east.

I do however have a problem playing UNI all the time. The biggest problem is nobody outside of the state of Iowa and maybe a couple bordering states have any respect whatsoever for their program. Most people don't even know they have a football team. I would rather see us play another cellar dweller from another big bcs conference. How about Minnesota? Boston College? Rutgers? NC State? Duke? Indiana? Miami? Oregon state? washington state? All FBS teams that would give us a "better" win, and most years I would say an easier win than UNI. you can't tell me our fan base wouldn't get up for a out of conference legitimate school.

We've scheduled cellar dwellars and by the time we play them they are anything but. We know that UNI has a ceiling. UNI's best teams shouldn't beat an ISU team that's worth a damn and if they do it's time to look in the mirror.

I can't believe what Jamie is doing to this program!!!!

[Cydkar]

Holy crap. I should have just read the post above mine. Great minds...

[shagcarpetjesus]

I'd rather have the home games, to be honest. We can't even get a 2-for-1 scheduling arrangement with MAC and C-USA teams. It would really suck to hit years where we only play 1 home non-conference game.

That's all fine and good but remember these two issues.

1. We don't know how good that school will be in X years when we actually get around to playing them. (UConn and Utah, anyone?) With UNI, I'm pretty sure we have an idea what the ceiling will likely be - no offense intended to UNI.
2. We will have to give up home games for this. Those teams are going to expect a balanced series one at our house, one at your house.

I think my proposal is still the best way to address these issues. Play UNI & Iowa on alternating years & you actually free up your non-con schedule to go play somebody interesting. Over the four year rotation, you'd have 8 non-con games at home and 4 on the road. You still have a FCS team (home game) on the schedule every year, it's just not UNI all the time. You still have an opening for a mid-level FBS team (home & away) just like we have now. And you still have a spot for a quality opponent every season. That's exactly the way our schedule works out now but you can at least get some variety this way.

[Cyclonic1]

[QUOTE=chuckd4735;3055826]We already had UNI on the schedule for '13, '15, '16 and '17, right? So this just adds 3 more games in '19, '21 and '23.
I thought Purple Iowa played EIU in the even years and ISU in the odd numbered years. What happened to change that?

[Rhoadhoused]

And we still can!

You only get one FCS team per year. Scheduling a bad FBS team hasn't really worked out for ISU in the past considering Uconn, Utah, Tulsa ect with those teams becoming really good teams by the time ISU plays them.

With FCS teams that chance is greatly minimized.

[Clark]

I would prefer to see UNI struggle financially. I dont like paying them a large paycheck everytime they play us.

Id let them play in JTS, but for substantially less money than another team would accept.

No reason we need to help our our competition.

If UNI is ISU's competition, the schedule is the least of your problems.