Iowa
University of Iowa Athletics expects to break revenue records in upcoming year • Iowa Capital Dispatch
The University of Iowa is expecting another record-breaking year for its athletics department while Iowa State University Athletics is working to handle changes to expected revenues as a result of collegiate athletic conferences shifting, university budget documents show.
With revenues slated to increase in football, women’s basketball, wrestling and volleyball, among other areas, the UI is projecting a total income of more than $150 million for fiscal year 2025, just over a 7% increase from last year.
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According to budgets submitted to the Iowa Board of Regents, which are set to be discussed at the board’s meeting next week, Hawkeye Football ticket revenue should increase this fall due to “a favorable home schedule and price adjustments,” and budgeted income for women’s basketball went from $1.3 million to $1.65 million in fiscal year 2025 because of “additional guarantees received for away contests.”
The university athletics department saw record-breaking revenue last fiscal year as well, prompted by soaring popularity in the women’s basketball team. Iowa women’s wrestling is projected to make $80,000 in fiscal year 2025.
Renegotiated television contracts from the Big Ten Conference will give athletic conference revenue at the UI a $13.4 million bump from the $61.8 million the university saw last year.
ISU Athletics is expecting to earn around $114.2 million in revenue for fiscal year 2025, $2.7 million more than the fiscal year 2024 budget. Cyclone Football is also expecting increased ticket sales due to an additional home game, and the athletic department is also planning to see increased ticket sales for women’s basketball and wrestling. The biggest bump is expected to come from women’s basketball, with the budget line increasing from $450,000 to $700,000.
However, with changes to collegiate athletics conferences and tournaments, ISU Athletics has put certain projects on hold and “is continuing to make operational and personnel changes as necessary,” according to the budget document.
With four universities added to the Big 12 Conference as of July 1, ISU and the other continuing conference members will receive $40 million less in Big 12 contributions through fiscal year 2031 than what was previously expected, according to the regents document.
Also impacting the ISU athletic department’s budget is the College Football Playoff expansion, which makes it so playoff revenues aren’t equally distributed among the different conferences, according to the document.
“With two athletic conferences essentially receiving the contractual increases in television revenue resulting from the new playoff format, the revenue allocations to members of the Big 12 conference will remain flat,” the document stated. “The financial impact of this change is approximately $5M per year (through FY 2031) when compared to earlier projections.”
The University of Northern Iowa, the only state university to provide support to its athletics department, is also the only university to expect a decrease in revenue for its athletics this upcoming fiscal year. According to the budget document, athletics revenue is projected to fall from around $14.8 million to just under $14.7 million.
As with previous years, UNI men’s basketball doesn’t have game guaranteed revenue to include in the budget yet.
“Sports income for football includes game guarantee revenue resulting in a budgeted revenue increase when compared to the FY 2024 budget,” the budget document stated. “Conversely, men’s basketball has no game guaranteed revenue on the schedule at this time.”
The university will also see a more than $1 million reduction in revenue from marketing due to its new contract with sports marketing company Learfield. The UI will only see a $150,000 decrease in its income from the contract it holds with Learfield, according to the document.
UNI will allocate $3.26 million in operational support, $1.28 million in scholarship funding and $485,000 for “one-time support,” according to the regent document.
The university included an almost $100,000 increase in income from UNI football, but decreases in other men’s and women’s sports.
Iowa
Check the Powerball numbers. 28,000 Iowa Lottery tickets won prizes.
What are your chances of winning any prize on the Powerball game?
Powerball is a popular lottery game around the U.S. but winning isn’t easy.
The Powerball Jackpot keeps getting bigger. No one was the winner on Wednesday, Dec. 17, which means $1.5 billion is now up for grabs.
This is now the fifth-largest jackpot in the game’s history.
How many Iowa Lottery tickets won prizes in latest Powerball drawing?
Iowa Lottery players won 28,677 prizes in Wednesday’s drawing, and this time, no one got close to winning the grand prize. Prizes ranged from $4 to $400.
What were the winning Powerball numbers in Wednesday’s drawing?
The winning numbers in Wednesday’s drawing were 25-33-53-62-66 and Powerball 17. The Power Playmultiplier was 4.
When is the next Powerball drawing?
The next Powerball drawing will be on Saturday, Dec. 20. The game has drawings on Mondays, Wednesday and Saturdays each week.
The Powerball jackpot has been growing since early September, and Saturday’s drawing will mark the 45th in the current jackpot run, a record for most drawings in a single jackpot cycle, according to the news release.
How many Iowa Lottery Powerball tickets were sold?
Iowa Lottery players bought nearly $1.75 million in Powerball tickets for last night’s drawing, including $1.24 million in tickets on Wednesday alone. But the average Powerball purchase in Iowa for Wednesday’s drawing remained around $6, or about three plays per ticket.
Lucia Cheng is a service and trending reporter at the Des Moines Register. Contact her at lcheng@gannett.com or 515-284-8132.
Iowa
Arizona baseball to hire Iowa’s Sean Kenny as pitching coach
Arizona got caught up in the swirl of college baseball coaches leaving for professional jobs this offseason, losing pitching coach John DeRouin to a coordinator position with the New York Mets organization. But the Wildcats didn’t take long finding a replacement, one with a strong pedigree in the collegiate ranks.
Kendall Rogers of D1Baseball.com is reporting the UA will hire Iowa’s Sean Kenny as pitching coach. Kenny will techincally be Arizona’s fourth pitching coach in five seasons under Chip Hale, though DeRouin only served in that role during the offseason following Kevin Vance’s departure in June to become San Diego State’s head coach.
Kenny, 53, spent the 2025 season at Iowa where his staff ranked 16th in the country in ERA and 11th in strikeouts per nine innings. The Hawkeyes went 33-22-1 but missed the NCAA Tournament.
Prior to Iowa, Kenny spent the 2023 season at Iowa and before that was at Georgia from 2018-23. He’s also coached at Michigan, Maryland, Pepperdine and San Diego. The 2026 season will be his 30th in college baseball.
Arizona, which is coming off a trip to the College World Series, returns weekend starters Owen Kramkowski and Smith Bailey and NCBWA Stopper of the Year Tony Pluta among several other pitchers from the team that went 44-21.
The UA opens the 2026 season on Feb. 13 in Surprise against former Pac-12 foe Stanford, part of a tournament that also includes Oregon State and Michigan. The home opener is Feb. 17 vs. Omaha at Hi Corbett Field.
Iowa
Watch live as bodies of Iowa National Guard soldiers return to US
President Donald Trump, Gov. Kim Reynolds, members of Iowa’s congressional delegation and families are receiving the bodies of fallen Iowa National Guard soldiers Sgt. William Nathaniel “Nate” Howard, 29, of Marshalltown, and Sgt. Edgar Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines and a civilian interpreter, Ayad Mansoor Sakat, of Michigan.
The dignified transfer ceremony is expected to happen this afternoon at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
All three were killed Saturday, Dec. 13, by an attacker who targeted a convoy of American and Syrian forces in Palmyra, Syria, before being shot dead.
Their caskets will be transferred from the plane to an awaiting vehicle and taken to the Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations building at the Dover base “for positive identification by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System and preparation for their final resting place.”
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