Iowa AD: Instate basketball series likely to change

IOWA CITY -Iowa Athletics Director Gary Barta said Wednesday the traditional home-and-home series among the state's four Division I basketball programs will change in the future.

Iowa's four-year contract with Northern Iowa expired after Tuesday's game, an 80-60 win by the Panthers in Cedar Falls. It's appears likely Iowa will not play at Northern Iowa any time soon.

"From my point of view as I look at college basketball and the scheduling of it, a lot has changed in the last 10 or 15 years," Barta said. "We're playing a Big Ten-ACC Challenge. We're playing 18 (Big Ten) games now instead of 16 games.

"So I've had conversations with the other three state schools to say that, No. 1, I've got to make sure I do what's best for the University of Iowa. No. 2, I like playing the state schools, and I'd like to explore ways we can keep playing. We've had some great conversations about some different models where we could do that, but not assuming that it would be exactly the way it is."

Iowa and Northern Iowa have rotated home sites since the series resumed annually in 1988. Likewise, Iowa and Drake have played every season but one since 1965. Except for a four-year stretch from 1978 through 1981, the teams also played rotated sites each season.

Speculation has swirled the schools could meet at a neutral site, like Des Moines' Wells Fargo Arena. Barta declined to reveal specifics of the negotiations.

"I'd rather not go into detail out of fairness of all four of us, the other three schools," Barta said. "We have had some good conversations. Certainly something like that is a possibility. Again, I just want to way until  all four of us to sit down and really talk through all the details.

"The biggest thing is just not assuming that it would be exactly the way it is now in a new contract."

Northern Iowa's contract with Iowa State also expires after the season. The Cyclones have played UNI all but two years since 1980. Iowa State and Drake have the state's most-played series at 170 games, meeting every year since 1908.