With the addition of Rutgers and Maryland next year, the Big Ten conference will be moving to a nine-game league football schedule. With one less non-conference game available, Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany has said that he wants conference schools to stop scheduling games against FCS opponents. That means that Iowa may no longer be playing UNI.

But Iowa Athletic Director Gary Barta says he’s told UNI A-D Troy Dannen that Iowa is committed to honoring their current contract with the Panthers. “For those who don’t know my history, I have been at UNI for 7 years, my wife graduated from UNI — and so set that aside, that’s personal affection and feelings — but you know it’s good for the state…and it looks pretty good that we’ll be able to keep the two games that are on our contract and we’ll see after that,” Barta says.

In addition to games against UNI in 2014 and 2018, Iowa is also scheduled to host Illinois State and North Dakota State in the coming seasons. Barta says that Iowa will need to schedule seven home games per season going forward, making it sound like he will try to keep some FCS games on Iowa’s schedule.

He says they have always played Iowa State and one other BCS level school and now they will add another Big 10 school and will play ISU and add some other opponents who are willing to come to Kinnick Stadium without a home and home series.

From a financial standpoint, Iowa would pay an FCS team like UNI somewhere around $500,000 for a game, whereas the Hawkeyes would need to shell out closer to a million dollars to bring in a team from a low-level FBS conference, like Tennessee Tech or Louisiana-Monroe.

Barta says the financial aspect is just one benefit of continuing the series with UNI as he says it’s a good financial deal for both when you can play an instate school. And he says with UNI as a the top team in FCS, it makes for an exciting matchup.

Iowa and UNI have faced off five times since their series resumed in 1995. Prior to that, the schools had not met on the football field in 81 years.

By Jesse Gavin KCNZ Cedar Falls

With the addition of Rutgers and Maryland to the Big Ten, the conference has announced that it will be moving to a nine-game league schedule each season. The conference will also go away from the practice of scheduling FCS teams in their non-conference schedules.

That means that any future meetings between UNI and Iowa are now in jeopardy. UNI football coach Mark Farley says that’s disappointing.

“That was a great stage and it was a great environment and a great opportunity. I understand the reasoning, but it is disappointing for the fact of going forward in that phase,” Farley says. “Because even the Wisconsin game was a great experience for our players and another opportunity that we went toe-to-toe, but those are decisions that are made above us. It’s too bad for some of the players that will come through in the future that won’t get to experience that.’

UNI did not face the Hawkeyes for 81 years before the series resumed in 1995. Farley says that the last two times the Panthers visited Kinnick Stadium were a pair of very competitive games.

Farley says it took a long time to get the series going. “Throughout the years there’s been some games that got away, but more recently there’s been some games that we had opportunities to win,” Farley says.

The Panthers are currently scheduled to visit Iowa in 2014 and 2018.

By Jesse Gavin KCNZ Cedar Falls