Iowa football hasn’t been able to bring its unique rise-and-grind gridiron brand to every school in the country, with a great number of programs yet to make the trip to Iowa City for an old-school showdown in the Hawkeye State. And vice versa.
Today, Dear Old Gold takes a look at one of the Big Ten’s most consistently solid programs and the teams that have avoided the slow-paced firefights the Black and Gold have become famous for over the years.
Here are the FBS programs Iowa football has never played
Iowa football vs AAC
The “American” is not a conference Iowa has much experience with. All but three programs in the conference’s current form have played the Hawkeyes before. The list of teams that haven’t includes UAB, Charlotte, East Carolina, Florida Atlantic, Memphis, Navy, Rice, USF, SMU, UTSA, and Tulane.
Picturing a matchup with any of those teams is hard to do unless the NCAA wants to host a true Sickos matchup between Iowa and Navy. Don’t write that off in a sport that schedules games with profit and fan interest in mind, but don’t expect the AAC to find itself matched opposite the Big Ten in the coming years with the conference expanding and the MAC having the proximity advantage. Remember, public schools are run by the state, and boosting the local economy is often on the mind of ADs and local officials who help book these games.
Perhaps a breakout team like Tulane or UTSA can force a meeting with a highly-ranked Iowa team in a future College Football Playoff. Otherwise, don’t hold your breath for meetings with the “American.”
Iowa football vs Conference USA
All things considered, Iowa has played more games against the revamped version of the Conference USA in its history. Four teams have already found their way onto the Hawkeyes’ schedule.
As for the teams that haven’t? Jacksonville State, Liberty, Louisiana Tech, Sam Houston, and WKU.
Two of those schools (JSU, Sam Houston State) just made the jump to the FBS ranks, so it’d make sense for them to never get matched up with a Midwestern school existing in Eastern Alabama and Southeastern Texas. Liberty and Western Kentucky feel more likely to force a future College Football Playoff game, but even that is somewhat far-fetched in the grand scheme due to the relative weakness of C-USA.
Perhaps the college football gods will bring the conference to Iowa, but it certainly feels like a remote possibility at best.
Iowa football vs MAC
Being that it is the closest Group of Five conference to the Hawkeye State geographically, you’d think the entire Mid-American would’ve gotten a chance to play one of the second-wave founders of the Big Ten. But there are a number of programs that haven’t been able to bring the MACtion to Kinnick Stadium.
Bowling Green, Eastern Michigan, Ohio, and Toledo have all never faced Iowa. They won’t get their shot in 2023 either, with Western Michigan getting the nod for the Hawkeyes. The next scheduled matchup against the conference is in 2026 when Northern Illinois comes to the Old Capitol.
It may not come anytime soon, but logic dictates these programs will get preference at some point. Then again, if the Big Ten keeps expanding — far beyond the advertised 10 by the way –, then perhaps there won’t be.
Iowa football vs Mountain West
The Mountain West has seen a little over half its conference take on the Hawkeyes at one point or another, meaning there is a handful of schools that have yet to take on the black and gold: those being Boise State, Fresno State, New Mexico, UNLV, and San Jose State. This checks out considering Iowa is one of the west-most members of the Big Ten.
Utah State is on the Hawkeyes’ schedule during the 2023 season, but once the Big Ten welcomes the two Los Angeles conference jumps (USC, UCLA), there isn’t another Mountain West matchup on the docket; and it could very well stay that way.
Like the “American,” there’s the caveat that the top team from the Mountain West could eventually find itself in a College Football Playoff matchup during an up year in Iowa City. Still, that’d take a heroic performance from a conference that’s only ever sent Boise State to a New Year’s Six bowl game.
Iowa football vs Sun Belt
Heading back down south, we have the Sun Belt; a conference that has very rarely played Iowa during the extensive history of the Hawkeyes. Only two teams have ever played the black and gold from the SBC.
Appalachian State, Coastal Carolina, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, James Madison, Louisiana-Lafayette, Marshall, Old Dominion, South Alabama, Southern Mississippi, Texas State, and Troy have yet to play Iowa.
Troy will be taking itself off that list in 2024, but as it stands, there’s not much room for the Sun Belt to get its time in Iowa — likely in early September before the cold becomes foreign to most of the conference — in future seasons with an expanded Big Ten. Of all the teams that could find themselves in an expanded College Football Playoff, Troy, South Alabama, and James Madison stick out as the greatest potential risers. But the Group of Five is tough to project since the top coaches typically get bigger jobs as soon as humanly possible.
Iowa football vs Power Five
Believe it or not, it doesn’t just mean more to Iowa since the Hawkeyes have yet to play several pillar SEC programs responsible for a good number of the championships over the last several decades. Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Georgia, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, and Vanderbilt haven’t faced Iowa yet.
For the Big 12, Bayor, UCF, Houston, Kansas, and West Virginia are all absent from the Hawkeyes’ record books.
In the Pac-12, Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Oregon State, Stanford, and Utah are all uninitiated in Iowa City and vice versa.
As for the ACC, Clemson, Duke, FSU, Louisville, Miami, North Carolina, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech, and Wake Forest are the conference’s non-representatives in the memories of Iowa fans everywhere.
Iowa football vs Independents
Though Iowa has had 21 matchups against Notre Dame, there have not been any matchups thus far against Army, UCONN, and UMass.
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