Hlas: Pitt-Iowa a series that made sense

Let's give Iowa and Pittsburgh credit for scheduling four football games with each other in an 8-year period, with the last of them Saturday night in Kinnick Stadium.

This series almost made too much sense to become a reality. It was each of the two playing against an opponent of some repute, four times.

'I think it made a lot of sense when the series originated,” said Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz. 'And the way it's panned out, it's been interesting.”

Nearly halfway between Penn State and Ohio State, Pitt is squarely in Big Ten country. Though it has been mundane the last four years (6-6 regular-seasons in each of them), Iowa had no way of knowing how good the Panthers would be when the games of 2008, 2011, 2014 and 2015 were scheduled.

As it turned out, Pitt wasn't great, wasn't awful. But the Hawkeyes didn't need to give their fans a Rand McNally or college football history book to explain who Pitt was.

If I say Mike Ditka, Tony Dorsett, Dan Marino and Larry Fitzgerald, you say that's a tight end, running back, quarterback and wide receiver you could line up against any four from any other program's history.

The ‘08, ‘11 and ‘14 games were all good. The Panthers trailed the ‘08 affair after three quarters before rallying to prevail. Iowa overcame double-digit deficits to win the last two.

What Saturday night brings, we'll see. But it's a lot easier to sell Pittsburgh-Iowa in prime-time than, say, Wyoming-Iowa or Miami (Ohio)-Iowa. They head Kinnick's way in the near future, once the Big Ten's schedule of nine conference games starts next year and Iowa alters its nonconference slates to Iowa State and two non-Power 5 conference teams.

If I were the boss of the Big Ten, the first thing I'd do is admit we already make way more money than heaven should allow a college sports entity thanks in large part to the Big Ten Network. So we'll make some changes that will leave us living on less.

But it's OK. We'll still be swathed in minks and diamonds.

First, I'm sending Rutgers, Maryland, and the huge television markets they rode in on back from whence they came. And I'm replacing them with Missouri and Pittsburgh. I can't explain how this will be happen until after I get the job.

Why Pittsburgh? Because it's a respected research institution, which the Big Ten digs. And because it's in a good spot for the league geographically. And because Pittsburgh is a terrific city, one that has reinvented itself in an enormously successful way.

But Pittsburgh was of no use to the Big Ten because its TV sets were already in the league's footprint, a term bigfoot Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany is fond of using. Who cares if Rutgers has brought nothing but embarrassment to the conference since it joined the league? The Big Ten Network is still on New York/New Jersey cable systems, and that means cash.

Pitt's in the ACC, West Virginia is in the Big 12, Missouri is in the SEC, and Rutgers and Maryland are in the Big Ten. With conferences out of geographic whack, you can at least try to play nonconference games that make sense.

Iowa and Pittsburgh will do that for the fourth time in eight years Saturday. It was very nice while it lasted.