Iowa-Illinois at Kinnick: A long time in the making

IOWA CITY — Four different football teams from the state of Illinois have played games at Kinnick Stadium since the last time the Fighting Illini competed in Iowa City.

Illinois last traveled to Iowa in 2007, the same year Chief Illiniwek retired and President George W. Bush was still in office. Kinnick Stadium was two years from switching away from natural turf. Heck, seven Iowa starters from that game are north of age 30.

It's a place former Illinois quarterback and current running backs coach Nathan Scheelhaase — son of former Iowa cornerback Nate Creer — always wanted to play but never could. Illinois guard Ted Karras is the seventh member of his family to play Big Ten football and all of them had played at Kinnick except him. His most famous relative — great uncle Alex Karras — starred at Iowa in the 1950s, winning the Outland Trophy and finishing second in the Heisman Trophy vote.

'I'm excited. I've never played at Kinnick,' said Karras, a senior. '(Alex) was the most notable of the seven that's played the Big Ten. My dad played in Kinnick (as a Northwestern player). They're a good team, two good teams playing and we have some confidence. I'm just looking forward to seeing it, going to the pink locker room.'

Even Illinois quarterback Wes Lunt is looking forward to the trip.

'I think we're really excited because that stadium is always packed,' he said. 'It's a field, a venue that's always packed and we're excited to play in front of that type of crowd. Iowa is really good at Iowa, so it will be a great challenge. I have guys that I went to high school with that are students there. Riley McMinn, a D-end at Iowa who's a medical hardship now, I played high school football with him.'

Expansion is the primary culprit for the eight-year gap between the border foes. When the Big Ten had 11 teams, each school protected two opponents annually and played the other eight six times in an eight-year period. Iowa protected Minnesota and Wisconsin while Illinois played Northwestern and Indiana every year, so the Hawkeyes and Illini met every year from 2003-2008.

The teams naturally cycled off each other's schedule after their 2008 game in Champaign and weren't supposed to play in 2009 or 2010. Their next scheduled game was set for Oct. 8, 2011 as Iowa's homecoming. But in 2010, the Big Ten invited Nebraska as its 12th member and all future schedules were scuttled. The league split in into the competitively equal Legends and Leaders divisions and the schools went into opposite directions.

League schedulers randomly arranged non-divisional, nonprotected opponents for the 2011 and 2012 seasons. Purdue was Iowa's protected cross-divisional opponent, and the Legends Division Hawkeyes also faced Penn State and Indiana. Illinois, a Leaders Division squad, kept Northwestern as a permanent crossover and played Minnesota and Michigan. So a two-year gap between the schools extended to four years.

When the league unveiled the 2013-14 slate, there was pressure for Iowa and Wisconsin to resume their rivalry so that became a nonprotected, non-divisional game. The league also placed Ohio State on Iowa's schedule, while Illinois' crossovers were Nebraska and Michigan State.

The teams finally were put on each other's schedules for the 2015-16 schedule, but that, too, was interrupted by Big Ten expansion. The league added Rutgers and Maryland to begin play in 2014 and split into geographic divisions. That allowed Iowa and Illinois to compete in the same division and are guaranteed to meet annually until eternity (or the next expansion).

So, this game was a long time in the making. Iowa has greeted Northwestern five times at Kinnick since Illinois' last trip. Eastern Illinois (2010), Northern Illinois (2013) and Illinois State (2015) also have played in Iowa City more recently than the Illini. Coincidentally, it's Iowa's homecoming this week and it falls four years and two days since Illinois was last scheduled to play at Kinnick. While no one can turn back the clock to 2011, it's a good to see these longtime rivals compete again in Iowa City.

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