World gets bigger and weirder for Hawkeyes next year

In 2024, Iowa will play a Trojans football team that is hard-nosed and learned how to win last season under its new head coach.

The Hawkeyes also will play USC.

But before that, Iowa will host the Troy Trojans on Sept. 14. They won their last 11 games in 2022 for a 12-2 mark, the Sun Belt Conference championship, and a victory in the Cure Bowl under their first-year head coach, Jon Sumrall.

Only Georgia enters the 2023 season with a longer winning streak, and the Bulldogs have artfully dodged Troy, which is one state over in Alabama.

The Trojans finished last season ranked No. 19. That can’t be what Iowa wanted or expected when it signed the contract with Troy in 2020, though Troy beat Nebraska 24-19 in Lincoln in 2018, a year after the Trojans won at LSU

Iowa was second in the nation in scoring defense and total defense last season, but Troy wasn’t too shabby itself at eighth and 19th, respectively.

Oh, what about those other Trojans? USC was pretty good itself last season in its first season with coach Lincoln Riley, going 11-3. It was third nationally in scoring with 41.4 points per game while Iowa was 123rd at 17.7.

USC averaged 506.6 yards per game, better than everyone but Tennessee and Washington. The Hawkeyes averaged 251.6 yards, better than no one but New Mexico.

But USC starts this season with a 2-game losing streak, so that’s clearly a program with problems. Like, for instance, which 4-star and 5-star recruits in southern California and beyond to recruit.

Adding USC and UCLA to the Big Ten may be good for the Big Ten, but it sure messed with Iowa’s 2024 football schedule. That was torn up after the two Los Angeles schools were brought into the fold.

The Hawkeyes had been slated to play Rutgers, Maryland and Indiana from the East Division next year, and not Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State or Michigan State. In other words, it was the most-favorable league schedule Iowa would ever get.

But now, next season will be played in a division-less league. Iowa will face USC at the Los Angeles Coliseum. And UCLA at home. And, Ohio State in Columbus for the second time in three years.

It hearkens way back to 1974 when the Hawkeyes’ first four games were at Michigan, against UCLA and Penn State at home, and at USC. In those bad old days, Iowa didn’t have an Illinois State or Nevada to cushion the impact of what was to come.

So enjoy this season, dear Hawkeye fans. You have one last year in the West division, and without Michigan and Ohio State on the schedule. After that, it’s survival of the fittest, who will all reside in the Pacific and Eastern time zones.

The top two teams of the 14 will clash in the league’s championship. Wouldn’t a USC-UCLA rematch in Indianapolis be funny? Maybe not.

Meanwhile, the best chance for Iowa to again play in Indy in December between now and the year 2525 would appear to be this year.

While the Hawkeyes travel just 1,610 miles for their five road games this year, that will balloon to 3,866 in 2024.

They have no games with Illinois, Northwestern or Purdue in 2024, but will play Rutgers, USC and UCLA. This is not your father’s Big Ten. Or yours, for that matter.

Oh, those of you Hawks who wanted Iowa State gone will have to cry in your Swarm beer. That series is under contract through 2027, and may eventually be extended through 2525.

In the meantime, the Cyclones are in a Big 12 Conference that won’t have Oklahoma or Texas but will feature BYU and UCF among others, and may soon have a bowl game in Mexico.

Everyone who saw all this coming two summers ago, be sure to say hello to Hlastradamus when you’re at the 3 Rivers Psychic Fair in Pittsburgh.

Remember, though, all future schedules remain subject to change. The Big Ten could add teams in Disney World or the Las Vegas Strip at any given moment. Plus, the wildfires situations in California and Canada are wildly unpredictable.

Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com