2023 CyHawk

Sorry but the bolded is way overstated.

I always wonder about this.

The # of people partying and spending money in Ames/IC who don't go to the game absolutely dwarfs any other game of the year...but if you had two home games in both towns on the same day would not the net economic revenue be the same or greater?

I guess it's hard to calculate when you aren't automatically replacing this game with a home game, it'd be a conference game most likely if CyHawk goes away which would only be at home half the time.

I think a lot of these non conf rivalries should consider an every other year or every four years event type of schedule, especially if somehow a conference goes to only 2 non-conf slots. Look at the Olympics, World Cup, Ryder Cup, etc...it can actually make it MORE intense and special. The key is that there's still a set schedule and rhythm to it. Don't just randomly play one game, then play again in 5 or 9 years.

With three non-conf spots I think it's silly to talk about removing the every year rivalry, but if it goes to two I think anything but a an every other year or every 4 years schedule would be a big missed opportunity as opposed to just ending it or having it a once a decade type of thing.
 
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Do NOT listen to this advice @iahawks . He is just messing with you. They don't allow printing tickets out any more, just digital. Pro tip, take a screen capture of your ticket. Thats all you should need and seems to work much better that way. Showing up 5 minutes early will be cutting it close but you should be good.
come-on-man-angry.gif
 
ISU's 2 non con games every year might not be national title contenders.... but at lease they will travel to their stadium and end up with 6 home games. The Hoks are too chicken-bleep to do that. This "the local businesses in IC need the extra game to stay in business" is quite laughable. Every college town can claim that.
The mandatory "7 home games" and never leaving the state in the non-con is a cash grab cop out.
I never thought I’d see the day when a fan would puff their chest about playing at Ohio.
 
And ISU schedules a bunch of juggernauts for their non-conference schedule every year? If you go back through the history of both teams' schedules you will find one team that did a bunch of home and homes against other P5 teams and the other didn't.
Which team has a stronger SOS every year?
 
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Which team has a stronger SOS every year?
That is mostly the byproduct of the Big 12 round robin schedule and not missing the top teams on some years. That is going to change a lot next year I have a feeling.
 
Impact is double digit millions of dollars per weekend coming into Johnson County. Hotels are full. Restaurants and bars are packed.
I have to say BS to that study. First it was done by a group promoting business in the area, and they did not factor in how packed those bars, restaurants and hotels are when the Squawks are not playing a home game. They just looked at the total to come up with the numbers.

Are the bars not full when it's an EIU away game, is no one staying in the hotels or going out to eat those Saturday nights? How do the bars number compare to when the team is on the road, I would think a lot of people are going to the bars those nights to watch the game?

When I ask people I know the question, "how much money do you spend in IC or Ames before and after the game, the number is basically nothing. Outside of paying for tickets and parking at each stadium. Many of the fans that are tailgating have already purchased those items in the town the live, and just bring them to the game. The average fan is not dropping a lot of money in either town.
 
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The bears played their home games in Wrigley field for years, they just haven't had a game there in years. Not sure why they are playing there, could be because of NW redoing their stadium.

its a fan/player experience thing. Just like Notre Dame playing Boston College in Fenway or Syracuse in Yankee Stadium. NW has played Illinois at Wrigley before.
 
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That is mostly the byproduct of the Big 12 round robin schedule and not missing the top teams on some years. That is going to change a lot next year I have a feeling.
By having MN, NE and WI as protected rivals? Now throw in NW and Illinois or Rutgers and you still have a lot of work to do to have a strong SOS.
 
That is mostly the byproduct of the Big 12 round robin schedule and not missing the top teams on some years. That is going to change a lot next year I have a feeling.
We’ve never not played an opponent in the Big 12 for the last 10+ years. If you go back and look at most years in the Big 10 West, the winner is the one who didn’t have to play 2 of the top 3 East teams. The team with the softest schedule wins that side almost every single year.
 
its a fan/player experience thing. Just like Notre Dame playing Boston College in Fenway or Syracuse in Yankee Stadium. NW has played Illinois at Wrigley before.

Evanston isn't a horrible place for a game day, but Wrigleyville is elite in the world for game day fun. When I was young and crazy living in Chicago just after ISU I'd do Wrigleyville gamewatch pretty much every Saturday for ISU games, it would have been absolutely nuts to play the actual game there. On CyHawk week it was especially crazy after the game when our one bar spilled out onto the street with the 3-4 Iowa bars. In the years the Cubs were in the pennant race it was even more fun to spend football saturdays around the ballpark.
 
We’ve never not played an opponent in the Big 12 for the last 10+ years. If you go back and look at most years in the Big 10 West, the winner is the one who didn’t have to play 2 of the top 3 East teams. The team with the softest schedule wins that side almost every single year.
I'm saying moving forward I expect ISU's SOS to either be similar or worse than Iowa's SOS because of how different both conferences will look next year. Big 12 will no longer be able to do a round robin anymore.
 
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I'm saying moving forward I expect ISU's SOS to either be similar or worse than Iowa's SOS because of how different both conferences will look next year. Big 12 will no longer be able to do a round robin anymore.

Both teams SOS are going to fluctuate radically with the new conference makeup.

With the Big 12 it wasn't just the round robin, but the fact that the league was usually 8-9 deep without a lot of bad teams other than KU who was decent last year. ISU had #9 SOS last year.

There's now a hypothetical and not far fetched Big Ten schedule that can be really elite and downright scary if you get those east powers but also USC/Wash/Ore in same year. ISU has had top ten SOS a lot of years (almost a majority) going back 20+ years and part of that is adding a solid Iowa team to a really deep Big 12. Just last year computer rankings had the Big 12 above not only the Big Ten but even specifically the Big Ten East.

The huge unknown with Big 12 is if it's going to lose that crazy depth, it quite possibly might. The Arizona schools and BYU have not been great lately. Cincy, UCF, and Houston have had some really good teams recently but can they do it in Big 12? CU is a huge unknown after week one but obvious upside and there was a time they were a Big 12/8 national power. Utah is kind of the only known quantity of the new 8 and they're a known quantity in a good way.
 
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