Hlas: A day at Kinnick Stadium unlike any other

An embarrassment of riches.

That may be the best way to describe what's taking place sports-wise at the University of Iowa Saturday.

Step back six months. Let's say I told you that one of the following two scenarios would take place in Kinnick Stadium on Nov. 14:

1. Iowa's wrestling team would hold a dual meet in Kinnick against Oklahoma State, and over half of the seats in the 70,585-seat stadium would be sold.

2. The Hawkeye football team would hold an evening game against rival Minnesota, and would do so with a 9-0 record.

Either of the two would make for an event to eagerly anticipate, and surely one to remember. But both are happening on the same day.

It seems safe to say much of the wrestling crowd is coming to town for wrestling only, and ditto football. But there obviously will be considerable crossover. So let's say one of every seven people going to the football game also will attend the wrestling meet.

That means it's quite possible over 100,000 different people will be in Kinnick Saturday, stretching from around 9:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. The aroma Coralville-Iowa City (and North Liberty, and Cedar Rapids) merchants are inhaling this weekend is the smell of money.

Just how much product will the Melrose Avenue vendor of turkey legs have ready to be gobbled up?

The double main event in and of itself would be notable. But this isn't Iowa wrestling, say, Rutgers. Or Iowa playing football against, well, Rutgers.

The wrestling meet is against top-ranked Oklahoma State. The Hawkeyes and Cowboys are the two top college wrestling programs of all-time. Iowa Coach Tom Brands didn't have to put Oklahoma State counterpart John Smith in a half-nelson to get him to commit to being part of this.

Brands said it took only a 90-second phone call from him to Oklahoma State Coach John Smith this summer. Which makes this even better.

Most college sports teams wouldn't have wanted to open their season by facing a rugged opponent away from home in such an unfamiliar and perhaps crazy environment. Smith heard the concept, liked it, and immediately said book it.

Credit Iowa, too. It wanted to do this thing right, so it went after a big fish for an opponent and risked losing in front of the largest crowd that will ever see a college dual. Did that enter the thinking of Brands and his program? Not for a nanosecond.

This will be big-time fun to watch.

As for the football, just Iowa playing Minnesota at night in Kinnick sounded like attraction enough when the game was announced as a prime-time contest. The old border rivals hooking up for one of the greatest trophies in sports, Floyd of Rosedale. What wasn't to like?

But then the Hawkeyes peeled off nine straight victories, giving this game as much importance as any they've played in Kinnick in a long time.

Win this, and the Hawkeyes are one more victory from bolting down a berth in the Big Ten's championship game. Win this, and the name 'Iowa' remains prominently mentioned when next Tuesday's set of College Football Playoff rankings are released.

Win this, and Iowa is 10-0 for the first time ever. There is something about the sound of '10-0' that is a little dramatic, a little powerful.

You know Minnesota won't surrender Floyd without a fight, which only adds to the night. The Gophers aren't great, but they do play hard. It would put a lot of salve on their 4-5 season if they could spoil Iowa's big party in Kinnick.

There have been some years — not a lot, but some — when you could go through an entire school year without a truly memorable sporting event held at Iowa. On one day, we get two.

l Comments: mike.hlas@thegazette.com, (319) 368-8840.