Hlas: Mean Green here for the long green

Iowa is paying North Texas $900,000 to play football at Kinnick Stadium Saturday.

In 2016, Iowa will pay Miami (Ohio) $1 million and North Dakota State $500,000 for games here. In 2017, it will pay Wyoming $1 million and North Texas $900,000. In 2018, it will pay Northern Illinois $1 million and Northern Iowa $600,000.

In 2019, Miami (Ohio) gets $1.2 million for its trip to Iowa. In 2020, Northern Illinois returns to Kinnick Stadium, and collects $1.1 million.

None of those guests are from Power 5 conferences. The only Power 5 team outside the Big Ten that will play at Kinnick in the foreseeable future is Iowa State.

That's because the Big Ten goes to a nine-game conference schedule next year, which is a good thing. But that means something's gotta give. Namely, interesting nonconference games.

Not that North Dakota State, Northern Illinois and UNI can't make things troublesome for the Hawkeyes. But you won't see a Pittsburgh pass this way again for a long time.

Though several Big Ten teams have scheduled future home-and-away series with premier programs, today in the Big Ten will be representative of most future nonconference Saturdays. Which is to say, ugh.

Of today's 14 teams playing Big Ten squads, none are ranked in the coaches' Top 25. Just three are from Power 5 conferences, and one is woeful Kansas.

Five of the 14 are from the Mid-American Conference. Ohio State and Michigan State, ranked No. 1 and No. 3, respectively, are facing MAC teams for the second time this season.

The visiting teams get big checks, though not nearly enough to make their programs profitable. It's table scraps compared to the overwhelming amount of TV money the big conferences don't share with little brothers like the MAC.

Occasional upsets happen, yes. But such games aren't fair fights given the enormous advantage Big Ten teams have in resources. Come take $900,000 and a beating, North Texas. See you again in two years.

Saturday, Dan McCarney coaches

the Mean Green in Kinnick. Is it really nine years ago since he has coached Iowa State?

It's been said familiarity breeds contempt, but losing breeds far more. After two straight 7-5 seasons, McCarney's 2006 Cyclones were 1-7 in the Big 12 and 4-8 overall.

Relatively-new ISU Athletic Director Jamie Pollard dismissed McCarney. The firing didn't make Iowa State fans feel very good. But while McCarney was popular, he had been there 12 years.

It wasn't an unanimous opinion, but the consensus seemed to be the program was stale and could do better. Maybe it could. Maybe it should. But it certainly hasn't.

The Cyclones were 47-50 over McCarney's last eight seasons at ISU. In the eight seasons and three games since, they are 35-67. Since Earle Bruce left Iowa State for Ohio State after the 1978 season, just six Cyclone teams have won seven games or more. McCarney coached five of them.

'He did a fantastic job there,” Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said this week. 'I think history has proven that or will prove that.”

But in the present, McCarney's team will return to Denton Saturday night with a $900,000 check and, barring something seismic, a defeat.

We do what we must to put food on the table. It isn't always savory.