Drake and UNI lose annual Iowa & Ia St games

[unipanther99]

Another point... The financial arrangment for this event has not been announced. That is probably another reason Dannen has been overly diplomatic with his wording.

[BirdmanBB]

Iowa and Iowa St. probably get a sweet deal for having UNI come to their places for football because of the proximity (saves on cost). They also probably recieve a decent contingent of UNI paying customers to these games opposed to if they had some other random FCS school come in for their allotted FCS game. If I were UNI, I would tell them the price for that buy game just went up to offset the revenue they are losing from the annual basketball series. If they don't like that then you will just go find some better football guarantee games that pay better. They will then be forced to go out of state to bring an FCS team in which in the long run will cost them more money.

[UNIFanSince1983]

“We’ve tried everyone in the Big Ten and the Big 12, and home-and-homes aren’t going to happen,” Dannen said. “No one is interested in two-for-ones, either. That’s why, as Iowa State and Iowa are questioning their series with us, we know it’s not unreasonable for them to question it because their peers aren’t doing it.”

WTF?

Way to give them a free pass and a perfect excuse for ending the series.

Good Lord, Stop being such a wuss and maybe make the case why the series doesn't need to be cancelled!!! Instead he goes to the "we are not worthy" card?

Is this guy sucking up in an attempt to move up within the state of Iowa university system? Trying to get a job at Iowa or Iowa State? Why not discuss the economic impact to UNI resulting from the loss of the game?

Last fall there was an article in the OWH about Nebraska perhaps not being able to continue the series with Creighton because of scheduling problems resulting from the Big Ten's decision to play more conference games. McDermott was quoted as saying, "they (Nebraska) seem to think it will be too hard to find open dates, but we (Creighton) will find a way to make it happen." His comments made it clear that Nebraska was looking for an excuse, but that Creighton wasn't going to give them one.

I agree. I guarantee Hartzell would not have been so kind in his wording about Iowa and Iowa St. As he was when McDermott left for Iowa St. Dannen is a yes man and that is why they hired him. Never been a huge fan.

[getreal4]

Dannen was a typical UNI hire, conservative safe, loyal, won't rock the boat guy with plenty of Iowa HS prior experience. IMO, a DII hire.

[Hail Our Panthers]

I think Dannen has done a great job. Look at what his programs are doing. UNI football is usually a top ten program. Volleyball has dominated the league. WBB made the tourney the last two years and is having a solid year again. Soccer and wrestling have very bright futures. Men's track has fallen a bit, but was a top 20 team I think 2 years ago.

Most of that success should go to the coaches, and there really are some good ones in charge of those programs but he has to get some of the credit for UNI's success.

Dannen doesn't seem nearly tough enough in his comments over this issue but there probably isn't a whole lot he can do to stop it. Iowa and ISU have all the leverage here and if they don't want to come to CF anymore, no amount of crying in the DSM Register is going to make them come.

As for the question on UNI BB/hawkeye football fans losing loyalty to hawkeye football over this...there probably won't be a whole lot of that going on.

[uniftw]

If Troy rocks the boat and pisses off Iowa and ISU they pull the football contracts and UNI is left 400-600K per year in the hole from the start the next 6 years, unless those football games can be replaced and pull in 800K to make up for the cost of having to charter the team across the country and put them in a hotel.

[getreal4]

Is 2014 the last time Iowa plans to play the panthers in football?

And does the UNI football program break even?

[uniftw]

Is 2014 the last time Iowa plans to play the panthers in football?

And does the UNI football program break even?

2010, Iowa State, $300,000
2011, Iowa State, $300,000
2012, Iowa, $500,000, Wisconsin $450,000
2013, Iowa State, $350,000
2014, Iowa, $550,000
2015, Iowa State, $350,000
2016, Iowa State, $400,000*
2017, Iowa State, $400,000*
2018, Iowa, (don't know the number)

*-Or 20 percent of net ticket receipts, whichever is greater, for ISU games in 2016 and 2017.
Source: Open records requests by The Des Moines Register


UNI football falls about 300K short of even I believe, however, this year there is a second FBS game, and talk of another FCS game added a couple more seasons down the road. That will be enough to get UNI football in the black along with some other things going on. However, UNI is in a much better financial position to break even than about 95-98% of the other FCS schools. I read somewhere that less than half of the FBS programs make money on football.

[PantherSigEp]

I'm not sure where this hate for Dannen is coming from. I've enjoyed him over Hartzell who became so obsessed with filling seats and giving away tickets that he probably lost us even more money. Dannen is a great guy who loves this university and loves his job. I'm not sure how many of you have had the opportunity to talk with some of our past few AD's but Troy is a class act.

[getreal4]

I'm not sure where this hate for Dannen is coming from. I've enjoyed him over Hartzell who became so obsessed with filling seats and giving away tickets that he probably lost us even more money. Dannen is a great guy who loves this university and loves his job. I'm not sure how many of you have had the opportunity to talk with some of our past few AD's but Troy is a class act.

Agree, he's a great guy, works hard with a very tough job. But, football & basketball need to breakeven for UNI to avoid more athletic program cuts. state funding will continue to decrease, need aggressive, proactive leadership or UNI will need to make further cuts.