On top of that, this plan would be a financial train wreck for the mid-majors, who gain significant amounts of money by playing BCS conference teams every year.
Bingo. I can't understand how many people fail to realize that college football is about money. It's not about who's the true champion, It's not about getting good OOC match ups, it's about the dollar. Most mid majors, especially the lesser ones, bank on that one big game a year. That literally is their bowl game and helps to support them for the year to come. I know everyone wants to bash the BCS, myself included, but, if the bowl system were to ever get cut out completely and we widdled all 120 teams down every year to 16 that get picked for a tourney to decide the NC, college football will be dead except for the select few that consistently make that tournament. I'm not naive enough to think that ISU will ever consistently be part of that 16 teams, but, it's nice to hope that we could consistently go see an ISU football game in a warm climate sometime after Christmas and hopefully New Years Day. I really don't want that to go away. Then college football becomes about being National Champion instead of just getting a good bowl game.
Anyways, back to the topic at hand. With money considered, it's hard to imagine that the ISU vs. Iowa game doesn't generate a good amount of money for the schools involved. There is a lot of advertising for it. And a lot of merchandise is sold and generated for the game. Not to mention all the people that seem to show up that don't even go into the game. So, yeah, it would take a ton of research, but, it's hard to believe that the Iowa ISU game doesn't build up more money for us than playing the University of Ohio.
Even a conference game against Kansas or Missouri doesn't bring up the buzz. It's because the schools are close. It's an easy travel even if you don't have tickets and it's a fun atmosphere.
