Truer words never spoken. Put Pemsl and Kriener (who were both down to UNI and Iowa) on UNIs roster to go with Pickford, Green and Brown and UNI wins the Valley this year.
I say this as about as diehard of a UNI fan that exists but the Golden Era of UNI Athletics is over. Bad AD hire (Dannen) and unrealistic budget expectations (compared to our peers) pulled all the momentum out of our programs and we're a mid-level Valley team for the foreseeable future. UNI is never again going to reach the heights of the 07-16 period.
As far as the in-state games, I really hope that two or three years from now everybody looks back and realizes how special and unique those games were and whether we go to a 2 for 1 setup or some kind of Ames/IC neutral set up or whatever. I'm not naive enough to think that the true H-H are ever coming back.
I agree with everything you said but honestly, I've never found the UNI or Drake games "special." It's a golden opportunity for the Panthers and Dogs to take a swing at the big boys but that's about it.