Iowa Big 4 in jeopardy

[Trapped in CA]

Under the most commonly offered scenario - UNI and Drake will play either Iowa or Iowa State in DSM as a doubleheader. Then Iowa & ISU will play their home & home series whenever it suites them.

If structured this way, I see the thing running 2-4 years, maybe 5 unless something vastly changes with the Iowa program. It will die a slow death of shrinking ticket sales if Iowa & ISU don't win games. Maybe that's the plan.

[uniftw]

Again, total B.S. Drake and UNI each play multiple BCS conference teams every year, so it's not like there's anything special about playing Iowa or Iowa State.

I don't think if I would go that far. If there is nothing special about playing Iowa or Iowa State, I would think most UNI and Drake fans would have no problem with not playing them anymore.

Saying there's nothing special about playing Iowa or Iowa State is probably going too far. A lot of fans care, the local media cares, and there's a lot of tradition at play. Iowa and Iowa State are usually by far the biggest home games on Drake's non-conference schedule.

But to call it Drake's superbowl is going way too far. Drake usually plays at least one other BCS-conference team in non-conference (this year Drake played two others), so it's not like Iowa and Iowa State are the only big name programs Drake plays. Iowa and Iowa State are rarely the best teams on Drake's schedule. Drake's undergrads mostly come from outside Iowa, and the out of staters don't care about Iowa or ISU. Drake's roster is usually mostly non-Iowans too (Drake has two scholarship players who grew up in Iowa, and neither has played yet this year due to injury).

This year UNI has wins over Big East, MWC, CUSA, CAA teams on top of beating both the B10 and B12 school we have played.

It's not like UNI can't filled out a decent schedule without ISU and Iowa.

[UNIFanSince1983]

No but playing other big conference teams does not guarantee us a win like Iowa and Iowa State does

[Trifecta]

This BCS entitlement is getting real old. After that UNI loss, Iowa fans were going ballistic on their rivals board about how the series needed to end. They can whine every year about "corrupt" officiating, their SOS and RPI dragged down, able to get better games, etc. But when are these teams going to just nut up and say "we're afraid to play you anywhere except at home"?

Nebraska fans have been looking down on Creighton for years. Doc actually said a couple of years ago that he'd prefer to end the series or have it be at home only. Now Iowa. ISU was bitching after their loss to Drake too. Don't theses schools realized that for the better part of the last decade the THEY are bringing US down the majority of the time?

I wish more people would hear what Doug Gottlieb has been saying. This BCS conference crap has to stop...the BCS has nothing to do with basketball. Don't justify your inferiority complex by throwing football nomenclature around. The dregs of the BCS conferences ride the coattails of their football programs, or in most cases just their mere association with a particular conference. Meanwhile its some sort of stigma to be a "mid-major" or "non AQ" conference. Guess what? This is basketball....they are all AQ conferences.

[unipanther99]

Well put.

[LanceShock]

But when are these teams going to just nut up and say "we're afraid to play you anywhere except at home"?

Nebraska fans have been looking down on Creighton for years. Doc actually said a couple of years ago that he'd prefer to end the series or have it be at home only.

This is the same sentiment KU and KSU expressed when they ended the series they played with WSU. They wanted to change things to something like a 3 to 1 or 4 to 1 series.

[unipanther99]

I would like to see a NCAA rule implemented requiring at least 25% of a teams scheduled non-conference games need to be true road games.