Why it's hard for an Iowa to schedule a Boise State in football

I'm the first to get down on Iowa and its fellow BCS-conference big boys for playing too many lousy nonconference games. In my perfect world, every week of the season would be packed with great games.

Thankfully, there are some good nonconference games every year. I'm listing some at the end of this post.

In the real world, the BCS teams wouldn't dream of that, of course. You're not going to play eight conference games, and also have four more teams from BCS leagues as your nonconference opponents. Especially when you want to have seven home dates a year and want a couple of sure wins to pad the record.

I hate to see the BCS-conference teams line up FCS (I-AA) teams for sure homefield wins. But sometimes the big boys do try to upgrade their schedules to a degree, and it's difficult.

Nebraska has put out a 2-for-1 offer to Boise State, as this Lincoln Journal Star story explains.

If the Broncos come to Lincoln twice, the Cornhuskers will play a game in Boise. Does that seem fair to Nebraska? Obviously. Does it seem as fair to Boise State? Apparently not.

Boise State, feeling it has moved higher up the college football food chain by virtue of its record and its 2-0 record in BCS bowls, clearly wants better terms. Good for the program for sticking up for itself. But it's going to make it difficult for the Broncos to get high-profile regular-season games.

The Nebraska series would have gone into effect in 2015. As you can see here from what Boise State has lined up for nonconference games until then, it has relatively little to do with BCS-league members. A home game with Oregon State and a matchup with Virginia Tech in Washington, D.C., are on the 2010 slate. A return game at Oregon State is in 2012. That's it.

Boise State plays BYU each year from 2012 through 2015, twice in Boise and twice in Provo. Good series. The Broncos also begin the first of a series of games with Utah in 2011.

Those are good games, and Boise State isn't doing any 2-for-1 deals to get them. Nebraska has its leveraging power, as do Iowa and many others. Boise State apparently chooses not to get caught up in that, preferring to do home-and-away series with Mountain West Conference schools instead.

Good nonconference games in 2010 include:

Sept. 4

Washington at BYU, UCLA at Kansas State, North Carolina vs. LSU in Atlanta

Sept. 11

Penn State at Alabama, Miami at Ohio State, Iowa at Arizona, Oregon at Tennessee, Georgia Tech at Kansas, Pittsburgh at Utah, Florida State at Oklahoma.

Sept. 18

USC at Minnesota, TCU at Texas Tech, Utah at Iowa State, Nebraska at Washington, BYU at Florida State, Arizona State at Wisconsin, Clemson at Auburn

Sept. 25

Oklahoma at Cincinnati, UCLA at Texas, Oregon State at Boise State