ESPN's Dan Murphy explains why Iowa has played at Minnesota 4 of 5 years

[BleedGopher]

per ESPN's Q&A:

@HerkyHam: @DanMurphyESPN @ESPN_BigTen Curious if you can explain why Iowa has had to play MN in MN 4 out of the last 5 match-ups?

Murphy: A handful of Big Ten teams have had to deal with unbalanced home-and-away series in the conference in recent years. Michigan, for instance, had to play its in-state rival Michigan State on the road this year and last year.

Conference expansion is the main reason some teams have had the short end of the scheduling stick in these series. The addition of Maryland and Rutgers, along with Nebraska in 2011, caused the Big Ten to reshuffle its conference schedule. Planning out games for 14 different teams is an impossibly complex jigsaw puzzle, which the conference had to solve by being temporarily unfair to a few teams. Those series should return to normal moving forward as long as the conference doesn't grow again.

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/110328/big-ten-monday-mailbag-56

Go Gophers!!

 

[gopher7]

Probably for the same reason we only play Indiana 1 time in 9 years.

 

[gopherfield]

And we went to Michigan each of the last two years

 

[MplsGopherFan]

I don't care why, I am just happy that I have not had to go to Iowa City for 4 of the past 5 years!!

 

[mnsportsgeek]

I had a great time at the game at Iowa 2 years ago. Aside from the part where we got curb stomped. It's a relatively short drive and makes for a fun weekend as long as you get tickets in the Gopher section.

Although it's more fun at home.

 

[Gopher07]

Re: IC, I've found the Iowa fans in Iowa City to be much more accommodating and personable than the Iowa fans that come to the games in Minneapolis. Not sure why that is, or if that's an outlier experience.

 

[RailBaronYarr]

Re: IC, I've found the Iowa fans in Iowa City to be much more accommodating and personable than the Iowa fans that come to the games in Minneapolis. Not sure why that is, or if that's an outlier experience.

Been to 3 MN v IA games in IC. Completely agree with this. Conversely, my mother in law lives in IC and has come up for a game and commented on the Iowa fans at the stadium. Said she was shocked how bad they were and has never seen anyone treated like that at IC for any game she's been to.

 

[Sports_Realist]

I went to Iowa for the 2009 game and generally the fans and locals were pretty friendly. Some ribbing and trash talk took place, but nothing over the line. It seems that when sports fans in general travel, especially in great numbers, there is more drinking and there tends to be a sort of mob mentality. People lose themselves in the moment and the crowd with civil behavior going right out the window. This is especially the case with a good team or a bad team with good seasons in near memory.

 

[WorkingMyTailOff]

I'm with you Afurry. I thought the Kinnick (sp?) stadium experience was great. It was old and cool, we were close to the action, and Iowa City is a nice college town. We just didn't have anything to cheer about that game.

 

[Jike Spingleton]

100% agree.

Iowa City is actually in my top 5 road trips in the Big Ten. It wouldn't be there if their fans acted the same way they do in Minneapolis.