Georgia seeks a nonconference football series with a Big Ten team -- Hey Iowa, get in the conversation

Georgia isn't afraid to find football competition. Besides playing Georgia Tech every year, the Bulldogs upped their nonconference schedules a while back. It had home-and-home series with Colorado and Oklahoma State of the Big 12 and Arizona State of the Pac-10.

Now the Bulldogs want bigger game, er, games. Georgia Athletic Director is holding preliminary talks with three Big Ten marquee teams (Ohio State, Penn State and Michigan) and Notre Dame for games down the road.

I, naturally, am advising Iowa to get into the mix. My understanding is Iowa, from now on, only wants to play nonconference games against BCS league teams in areas in which Iowa recruits. Which is the Big East and parts of the Big 12, and it already has a Big 12 game locked in with Iowa State.

You know Kirk Ferentz's program will never schedule another series from a team in the Pacific time zone. The games at Arizona State and Arizona will forever be open wounds, though the Hawkeyes did handle both of those teams in Iowa City.

Iowa hosts Pittsburgh next season as a return date from the Hawkeyes' 2008 game at Pitt, and two will play again in 2014 and 2015. Iowa recruits in western Pennsylvania.

Iowa does not recruit in Georgia. So what? That "recruiting" thing is overblown, anyhow. How many super preps do you land by saying "We'll play a game back here when you're a junior?" Maybe it helps, but is that what's going to put you over the top with a kid?

How about "Hey, young fella, want to play against one of those SEC teams on national TV?"

Play a team from the SEC with some name-recognition, and that resonates. Plus, the fan base would get into it in a major way. When is the last time an SEC team visited Kinnick Stadium, anyhow?

The answer: Never. Never! Although Iowa did play pre-SEC Arkansas once, in 1925.

The Hawkeyes have played just one regular-season game against an SEC team, the 1987 Kickoff Classic against Tennessee in East Rutherford, N.J. They have played six bowls games against SEC clubs (Florida 3, Tennessee, South Carolina, LSU), and won four.

How do these things happen? Hey, how did Iowa and Missouri go 100 years without meeting each other in football?

Call Georgia, Gary Barta. Tell the Dawgs you'll sign on if the big shots won't. Playing Pittsburgh is nice and everything, but it won't move the needle nationally. You do want to move the needle, right?