FARGO-If you're still contemplating making a road trip to Iowa City, Iowa, on the weekend of Sept. 17, getting into the North Dakota State at Iowa football game is still within reach. Over 2,000 single-game tickets remain, according to the Hawkeye ticket office.
Don't take that as a sign the excitement level is down at Iowa at 70,585-seat Kinnick Stadium. Coming off a 12-0 regular season and a trip to the Rose Bowl, season tickets are up and the home schedule has some tasty options.
Two games are sold out: Iowa State on Sept. 10 and Michigan on Nov. 12. Other home games include homecoming against Northwestern on Oct. 1, Wisconsin on Oct. 22 and Nebraska on Nov. 25. Iowa averaged 63,142 fans a game last year, but that stands to increase this season.
"We have the best home schedule since I've been working here and that's a long time," said Pam Finke, director of ticket operations at Iowa. "It seems like everything fell right for us going into this year where last year was not as attractive."
The best home schedule is saying something; she's an Iowa graduate and has been at the school for 35 years.
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NDSU has already divvied its visiting school allotment of 3,700. Josh Hemingway, NDSU's director of business and ticket operations, said his office took more requests than that and went to its priority points system to award the tickets.
The 3,700 is 700 more than Big Ten schools are mandated to give opponent league teams, a result of the NDSU-Iowa contract being signed before that number was adjusted, Finke said. Hemingway said the 3,700 is about in line with what NDSU got from the University of Minnesota when the Bison played the Gophers in 2006, 2007 and 2011.
"North Dakota State is known for having great followers," Finke said. "It's a great team and a great program and we're hoping and anticipating that their fans would follow."
