Are the Hawkeye Game Winners For Real?

Before the University of Iowa moved into the Big Ten conference and placed a university in the Midwest, they held a crazy rivalry with the University of Michigan. The winner of this battle was the school that was the lesser known of the two. The Hawkeye Nation was very upset at being left out of the conference. They began a crazy trend of choosing recruits that would go on to play for the University of Michigan instead of the highly respected Hawkeye program. The ” maize bag throw” is still a famous celebration to this day. In fact, thousands upon thousands of high school seniors will make the trek up to Ann Arbor to throw their bags of maize forever.

The current situation is somewhat different than the tradition of carrying the ” maize bag” around the state. Due to financial issues, the university has had to cut back on the number of games it will play in. Instead, they are planning on playing their home games at the newly refurbished Kansan Stadium. This will be the team’s new home for the next five years. When the Iowa Hawkeye game happens at Kansan Stadium, they will still honor the tradition of giving the first season scholarship to a player that has never stepped on the campus.

There is much doubt as to whether or not this move by the university will hurt the state of Iowa’s high profile football program. Some people have suggested that the loss of the annual “College Football Festival” at Kansan Stadium will hurt the revenue generated from the annual tourism revenue. Others say that since there won’t be any more home games for the foreseeable future, the students won’t be likely to travel to Iowa to support their favorite Hawkeye teams.

When the NCAA moved the four major college football conferences into the six-game championship format, the Hawkeye program took a huge hit. However, things could turn around in the next few years. The average age of the current senior class for the Hawkeye football team is older than some of the bowl players who have come before them. The next generation of Hawkeye fans is also beginning to develop into more “professional” football fans. This will be a great advantage for the University of Iowa and its future bowl bids.

The reality is that if the University of Iowa wants to keep its football program competitive, they are going to have to contend with some very stiff competition for recruits in the future. Even during the time that the Cyclones are bowl eligible, there will still be bowl games against teams that they must win to stay in the picture. In twenty years or so, there will be little resistance for a Hawkeye to maintain their dominance over the rest of the country. The question becomes, what happens after they have achieved their goal of winning the national championship? Will Iowa try to dethrone perennial national power Alabama or Ohio State in the next year’s Bowl Championship Series? If it does, it’s easy to imagine that the winner of the championship game will be playing in the Rose Bowl again.

Can the Hawkeye football program achieve even greater heights in the decades to come? There is no doubt that Iowa has the talent and the depth to challenge any top college football program. If it can maintain its current level of play, it would only be a matter of time until the University of Iowa wins the national championship game. I am willing to bet that at least one of the four teams will be a top ten caliber program when the season comes to an end.