Des Moines Register
09-15-07
Iowa vs. Iowa State: At last, it's game time
Here are 7 things you should know about today's spectacle before kickoff
1. You can still get tickets
Iowa State University required fans to buy season tickets to attend this 12:30
p.m. game. Steve Malchow, senior associate athletic director at ISU, said Friday
morning that 48 season tickets had been sold in the last week. Season tickets
will be on sale today at the Jacobson Building ticket window. Bleacher seats are
$350; hillside seats are $150. One-game tickets were selling for $50-$100 on
ebay.com.
2. Where to watch on TV
The game will be shown on the cable network Versus. ISU expects to receive
$350,000 in TV money from the game. "That money can fund a lot of programs,"
said Frank Nogel, who handles television contracts for Iowa State.
3. Oddmakers pick Hawkeyes
ISU is a 17-point underdog - the biggest spread since Iowa was a 22-point
favorite in 2004. The Hawkeyes won 17-10 that year. "We kind of like that,"
Cyclone linebacker Alvin Bowen said, "because our backs are up against the
wall. So it's going to force a lot of players to fight."
4. School pride on display
For the third year in a row, the University of Iowa Alumni Association distributed
1,000 shirts the week of the game to encourage positive sportsmanship among
students.
At left, U of I students Laura Newberg, 23, of Sioux City, left, and Rayell
Grayson, 22, of Kansas City, Mo., unfold one of the shirts Friday. Grayson said of
the game: “We have to win. I have a lot of friends who go to Iowa State. I like to
talk trash to them about the Cyclones.”
5. That's a lot of hot dogs
About 4,000 hot dogs are sold at a normal Iowa State game, said Bob Thormeier,
who oversees concessions at Jack Trice Stadium. For this game, he's ordered
8,000.
6. Extra cell phone power
Cell phone capacity will be expanded with portable towers for calls, text
messaging and photo transmissions. U.S. Cellular said it expects call traffic to be
up 40 percent from what it was during the ISU game on Aug. 30. Sprint and
Verizon Wireless also plan to use portable cell towers.
7. Cyclones go old school
Iowa will be right at home in Ames: The Hawkeyes will wear their black home
uniforms so Iowa State can don white throwback jerseys. ISU is honoring its
1977 Peach Bowl team. "I can't ever remember wearing black uniforms in the
stadium of an opponent," said Greg Morris, the U of I football equipment
manager since 1979. "If I had my way, we'd wear black all the time - we have to
work harder to get the stains out of the white uniforms."