Yeah, just so we’re clear the game will be on the ESPN main channel. I wouldn’t be shocked if the SEC didn’t have some leverage in “tamping down” ESPN’s ability to advertise this game in particular as much as they might otherwise. I’ll explain why
The CyHawk game (iowa v iowa state) week 2 will have the Big Noon Kickoff pre-game show in Ames. As I understand it, Fox actually had to get a waiver from the Big Ten (and the university of iowa) to allow the show to be broadcast from Ames… because the contract stipulates that Big Ten HOME TEAMS will always get the Big Noon Kickoff pre-game show unless approved otherwise by the Big Ten Conference. Meaning the Big 10 in effect has a BIG say in Fox’s ability to fully promote other conferences, even when a Big 10 team is still involved as a road team. How? In order to secure the waiver, Fox can and will make any sort of demands or stipulations in order to feel comfortable in granting the waiver. They can claim breech of contract, otherwise.
Crazy, huh? For that reason, I expect the pre-game coverage for that game to be more hawkeye slanted, despite being in Ames. Unless the university of iowa was feeling particularly gracious to its cross-state rival, which is historically unlikely.
It really is an uphill battle for all of us. Our conference members will always be second fiddle whether we are on Fox or ESPN. Thems the breaks, unfortunately.
ISU is actually 6.5 point favorites in that one last time I checked.
Haven’t beaten them in Ames since 2011. A lot will be riding on that one, regardless of the outcome in Ireland. Obviously the goal is to win both, but it could be an even bigger thing should we lose.
Campbell’s teams have also typically been sloooooow starters. So there’s a fair amount of tension right now.
One of the ways to make a case for your conference is to play meaningful out of conference games and frankly the BIG12 is not playing enough of them this season. That could change based on how the season plays out but as it looks right now (based on 2024 records which I know isn’t perfect).
ACC puts themselves in the thick of it in the first four weeks:
LSU 9-4 @ Clemson 10-4 Saturday, August 30, 2025------------------vs SEC
Syracuse 10-3 @ Tennessee 10-3 Saturday, August 30, 2025-------vs SEC
Baylor 8-5 @ SMU 11-3 Saturday, September 6, 2025
Illinois 10-3 @ Duke 9-4 Saturday, September 6, 2025------------------vs Big Ten
Florida 8-5 @ Miami 10-3 Saturday, September 20, 2025--------------vs SEC
SMU 11-3 @ TCU 9-4 Saturday, September 20, 2025
BIG 12 not so much:
Iowa 8-5 @ Iowa State 11-3 Saturday, September 6, 2025--------- vs Big Ten
Baylor 8-5 @ SMU 11-3 Saturday, September 6, 2025
SMU 11-3 @ TCU 9-4 Saturday, September 20, 2025
SEC
Texas 13-3 @ Ohio State 14-2 Saturday, August 30, 2025--------- vs Big Ten
LSU 9-4 @ Clemson 10-4 Saturday, August 30, 2025
Syracuse 10-3 @ Tennessee 10-3 Saturday, August 30, 2025
Notre Dame 14-2 @ TAMU 8-5 Saturday, September 13, 2025
Florida 8-5 @ Miami 10-3 Saturday, September 20, 2025
Yes, there are other games but games like Baylor 8-5 vs Auburn 5-7 or Nebraska 7-6 vs Cincinnati 5-7 are not particularly compelling at this point. Again, they could be but until proven on the field, not so much. ESPN would like people to believe Michigan at OU is a great matchup but is it? Michigan, even though 8-5 were a little underwhelming and OU was 6-7, a fact that seems to be lost on AP voters, D1 coaches and ESPN “power” indexes.
The only SEC matchups The BIG 12 have are:
Auburn 5-7 @ Baylor 8-5 Friday, August 29, 2025
Kansas 5-7 @ Missouri 10-3 Saturday, September 6, 2025
Arizona State 11-3 @ Miss State 2-10 Saturday, September 6, 2025
These are not great, compelling or must watch matchups. Baylor can’t lose to Auburn and Arizona State can’t lose to Mississippi State because if they do, that makes the conference look weak. The best The BIG 12 can do is get two wins they were supposed to and hope for a Kansas upset of Missouri.
Actually it is worthless. All or almost all the games were scheduled before the 2024 season even began. Also need to look at several years to see who has recognition.
Agree with the premise, but your reasoning is just Big 12 bashing.
Auburn and Nebraska still carry much more name recognition than Illinois, Syracuse or Duke for football. If we were talking basketball, your point would be much more valid.
List should include:
Baylor - Auburn
Cincy - Nebraska
but also no mention of:
Utah-UCLA (8 or more wins 2021, 2022, 2023)
TCU - UNC (8 or more wins 2022, 2023)
OK State playing Oregon, not on list? I would think Oregon is a big name.
UCF also plays UNC
(OF course you have SMU - TCU for the ACC but UNC - TCU does not count for ACC? TCU did win 9 games last year. Add another to ACC)
Not to mention the TCU-UNC game is probably going to be one of the highest media rated OOC games in the conference if not CFB top 10.
Last point - both teams have to agree to the schedule, so teams like Florida, Miami, Clemson, Ohio St have to agree to play a Big 12 team also. Disclaimer - I am not a fan of Big 12 teams playing one and done on the road.
Best thing - Big 12 just needs to beat the teams on their schedule. IF the SEC does not like the Big 12 going 3-0 vs them, then their better teams need to step up and schedule Big 12 teams…
The image is a screenshot from W in 2020.
Won in Manhattan 2021
Lost in Ames 10-9, our 4-8 down year, in 2022.
Won in Manhattan 2023.
Won in Ames in 2024.
Yup. I know it’s really hard to get even similar caliber P4 teams to agree to home and homes with Iowa State. They see it as essentially a lose-lose situation.
I’d imagine the majority of Big 12 teams would be in a similar predicament. Mountain west and AAC teams jump at the chance, but I think our teams much more rightfully view these matchups the same way.
I don’t see any problems with your response. Realistic and poignant I’d say. You mentioned a lot of good matchups IMO. Do i wish there were more higher profile opponents playing our teams in a fair situation? Yes. Unfortunately, it’s a process and there’s a lot of things we can’t control. To your point about winning the games we have, that is really all we can do in order to turn this bias thing around.
Look at Texas and Ohio State. Both teams probably view it as an everything to gain, and nothing to lose situation. I guarantee even the tag-alongs and coat riders of the Big Ten and SEC are not jumping at the chance to play most Big 12 teams. They would much rather play the dregs of the other P2 league or just rely on their conference schedule and buy games (which they can easily afford for pennies on the dollar under the current TV deal structure). I think CFP success is probably the only thing that might begin to change the tide here. Even then, it will have to be somewhat sustained probably.
Edit: FWIW, it seems off the top of my head TCU does pretty well with getting good non-con matchups, and I think UNC is a great opponent.
@EndlessPurple Also I’ve never gotten a chance to comment on your CFP team that beat Michigan. How awesome that was. That team captured the nation with their run. I was a big fan.
Bonus points, of course, for TCU being led by Iowa Native, Max Duggan. What a cool story his career was, basically losing his job…only to come back and play with such moxy on that insane run. I’m biased, but Rocco Becht has a litte bit of that moxy swagger to his game too. Anyways, what a fun and awesome game that was when you beat Michigan. Can’t forget about the infamous Boykin team that got robbed along with Art Briles cheating program that one year lol. I’ve got a lot of respect for Horned Frog Football, they are a problem.
Fun story about Duggan from an ISU perspective…But Max Duggan had a strong ISU connection for a number of reasons, and Duggan was once considered all-but guaranteed to be a Cyclone. This was common knowledge for your more informed Cyclone fans for quite some time, actually. He was followed very closely in HS because of it.
THEN, seemingly all of a sudden, pretty late in his recruitment, he made it known to our staff that he was going to pump the breaks a bit and take an honest look at his other options more seriously… kind of wait it out a bit more than maybe initially expected. Honestly no hard feelings there, he obviously made the right decision for him, and we were all very proud of him up here. In all fairness, I had heard some rumors that ISU was telling him that he’d get a shot at QB, but they also had serious thoughts that maybe he might ultimately project more as a safety. Not sure if true, but that’s what I heard so I thought I’d add that.
Anyways, it ended up working out for both teams. The Duggan scholarship ended up being first-come-first-serve after Duggan rightly communicated his intentions to weigh his options more closely. Who ended up swooping in and committing to that “Duggan” scholarship? A late riser that wasn’t on anyone’s radar at the time, from Arizona of all places. A kid named Brock Purdy.
Unfortunately, it is hard to get the best match-ups since many of the schools have specific teams they will play or do play due to history. Plus, as you said, lose-lose situation for many of the name teams in the SEC and B1G (ACC to a lesser extent). It is also hard in some cases to know how good these mid teams will be in 5+ years for when the game actually gets played.
I do wonder how much behind the scenes influence the media may have in setting up some of these OOC games (or detering some of them)
Kind of disagree with you comment on TCU. We get some good opponents, then they dump on the fans by moving the games out of the home stadium. LSU and Ohio St both started home/home and got moved to a neutral site game at Cowboy stadium (and not included in season tickets). Partially on fear that the name team was going to back out of the Fort Worth game, but also because of a promised cash amount.
Now with UNC, TCU goes there this year, and they moved the FW home game to Ireland next year. So instead of just a neutral game like OSU/LSU, it is a road and neutral game. They upset a lot of TCU season ticket holders (me included)
Wow. Yeah I didn’t know that. You have a real grievance there then. That sucks. But, I think it kind of serves to prove the point you made initially, which I agree with.
That was a great game. Even better recently as the Michigan guy recently said they even had TCU’s new signals for that game and TCU still won.
The next week not so much as TCU went in thinking they were happy to be there, and a very very talented Georgia team was given a wake up call by almost losing to Ohio St. They came in focused, and had the most talent by far.
Duggan was a great story about leadership and willing that team to victory by example. TCU has had a couple great QB stories. Look up the Kohlhausen QB story (UH transfer to TCU) and the TCU/Oregon Alamo Bowl. I met him before (after his accident) and was a very nice guy.
I do not know many people from Iowa, but I like to think Duggan exhibits the standards of Iowans well.
2010/2014 TCU teams could have won it all, but were never given the chance. Auburn with known paid players, and FSU really was the team that did not belong in 2014. BU kept threatening lawsuits if TCU got in over them, so Ohio St was the easy fix for the committee.
Fun fact: Aug 2022 was first time I ever put money on TCU, and I placed a bet to win the NCAA title. I was one game from a very large payout.
