Kinnick Stadium has night fever

IOWA CITY - Gary Barta was careful how he described his 'discussions” with the Big Ten and Big Ten Network during the winter. The topic was landing a night game at Kinnick Stadium for the first time in three seasons.

'Negotiation” didn't quite capture it. Certainly, not 'debate.” It wasn't a 'fight,” a 'bargain” nor was it 'arm wrestling.”

'No fights, not even bargaining,” Iowa's athletics director said. 'Convincing, maybe.”

Iowa went two seasons without a night game after the 4-8 cold plunge that 2012 was. Frankly, it didn't look promising for 2015.

You remember how last season ended. So, going into the long nuclear winter with that 7-6 record, punctuated by a disappointing overtime loss to Nebraska and a subjugation by Tennessee in the TaxSlayer Bowl, Barta evaluated everything with the idea of regaining momentum.

(Yes, he met with head coach Kirk Ferentz about the football side of things, too, and said, 'I was thrilled with his passion . . . he talked about what he was going to do, I was behind him.”)

The whole thing beyond football was regaining momentum.

'What do we have to do around the program?” Barta said. 'What do we have to do around Kinnick?”

One of the items on the list was could Iowa get a night game? And so . . . what's the word? . . . 'conversations” started with the B1G and the BTN on what Iowa had to offer for 2015.

Barta started with TV ratings. He said Iowa has traditionally held its own. For example, Nebraska-Iowa last season drew a 2.4 share on ABC, the second highest on the Friday after Thanksgiving.

'We understand that we have to get there (win and be interesting but mostly win, but Hawkeye fans, ratings-wise, have proved historically that if you put us on, you'll get a good rating, and they know that,” Barta said. 'We just kept the conversations going.”

The Big Ten and Big Ten Network kept listening. Mark Rudner, B1G senior associate commissioner and TV administrator, kept listening.

Barta tried to sell Iowa coming off an 8-5 record in the 2013 season. It was an uplifting season for Iowa after 2012, but the home games didn't sing to TV executives. While you can debate the merits of Iowa's 2015 home schedule, the BTN liked what it saw, Pittsburgh and Minnesota in particular.

In the case of this week's game against the Panthers (2-0), BTN wanted a prime-time game and it saw an attractive intersectional matchup with two attractive regions of the country. With the Minnesota game on Nov. 14, also a 7 p.m. kick on BTN, the network bought into the idea of the first night game between the two rivals at Kinnick Stadium.

Barta made his pitch, and BTN saw attractive games it wanted for prime time. (The decision-making period for night games lasts about six weeks, beginning in March and ending in mid-April.)

'If you look at Iowa's home schedule in the past and it really hasn't had games of that nature, intersectional games of that nature on its schedule,” Rudner said. 'When you have an ACC opponent come to town and it's not otherwise selected by ESPN or ABC, then it becomes available.

'I know Gary talked to BTN and I know BTN was intrigued by it. At the end of the day in our prime selection process, it's up to the institution to agree to have the game at night. BTN made the request on the Pitt and Minnesota games and Iowa consented.”

Winning is a good thing, Rudner said, but when Ohio State was 6-6 in 2011, it still drew night telecasts. For schools like Iowa, quality of opponent matters. You won't see Iowa vs. an FCS on prime time.

In the end, Barta's pitch for night games was 'Let's create value, value for the Big Ten Network and value for the Hawkeyes,” Barta said. '. . . Fortunately, whether it's a bowl game or trying to get night games, we have this great history I can point to and have credibility. When I say Hawkeye fans go to bowl games and Hawkeye fans will not only come to the stadium but they'll also watch on television, I can sell something that has a history to it.”

Of course, Iowa had never played host to two night games, so that was a question Barta had to weigh. When night games started becoming more prevalent, he said no way on two. After two years without a night game, Barta said yes, but really the campus community helped him with that.

'The campus was great, everyone across campus said, let's do it,” Barta said. 'The second part was how it will be for our fans in November? Well, we'll wait and see. It could be great, it could be chilly, but, either way, we have two night games.

'And then next week (North Texas at Kinnick), we have 2:30. It's great for fans, it's building momentum.”

The two night games this season also happened to matchup with the completion of permanent lights in Kinnick. The project stretched over two years and cost $350,000. Iowa would spend $50,000 to $70,000 renting portable lights to bring into Kinnick, a cost that TV networks stopped footing a few years ago. (By the way, Iowa still has an excellent relationship with Musco Lighting, which installed the new lights and also trucked in the portable ones.)

So, does Barta see two night games at Kinnick every year now?

'I think the campus would be comfortable with two a year, but you can't predict,” he said.

Are night games a status symbol? There is a glitz factor that maybe matches up with the wave of alternate uniforms. But Iowa players know all too well that if you don't win, the night lights can go away. Junior defensive tackle Jaleel Johnson was a freshman the last time the lights were turned on in Kinnick, 2012 against Penn State.

'We have to go out and play, doesn't matter if it's night, day,” he said. 'We have to go out and perform the way we know we can.”

Ferentz said he doesn't know if night games bring status, but he's all for them in Kinnick Stadium and not so much on the road.

'If there's status with it, that's a side benefit,” Barta said. 'What I look at it as is excitement in the stadium, excitement around the program, momentum around the program, that's what I see it as.”

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.com