The University of Iowa fired head baseball coach Jack Dahm Thursday, and submitted a five-paragraph press release in announcing the move: We aren’t supposed to reprint press releases here, and it’s just as well, because the only paragraph that said anything other than the first one containing the news was the final one. It said: [...]

      For one more year, the Big Ten will have four bowl games being played simultaneously for a couple hours on Jan. 1. The Heart of Dallas, Gator, Outback and Capital One. This wasn’t a wise idea originally, and it remains unwise today. But that will probably change after the following season after [...]

  All it takes are three things for Iowa’s football and/or men’s basketball team to make you rich in the next school year. 1. Bet a substantial amount on the Hawkeyes to be BCS or NCAA champions. 2. The Hawkeyes then win the national-championship. 3. Make your wager in Nevada, where it’s legal.   According [...]

  Some of the greatest minds of our generation have claimed there are too many college football bowl games, or too many that are meaningless. Rubbish! They clearly are magnificent. Why else would Little Rock, Ark., consider hosting one?  The NFL’s Detroit Lions want in on the bowl business, even though they are reportedly a [...]

I’ll have a podcast with Iowa associate head wrestling coach Terry Brands posted later this afternoon. He, to no surprise, was a good guest. Until then, here are a few observations from the weekend: 1. It’s great to have enough frequent-flier points for a free trip. Finding a time you want to go somewhere that [...]

FORT DODGE — The I-Club annual spring banquet tour made a stop in Webster County Thursday night. Here is audio from Iowa men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery. Here is audio from Iowa assistant football coach Brian Ferentz. Here is audio from Hawkeyes head wrestling coach Tom Brands. “We’re going Star Trek!” Brands said. You’ll see [...]

CEDAR RAPIDS — Come a time in the not-so-distant future, people will brag about how they saw Byron Buxton play baseball in Cedar Rapids before he began tearing it up in the majors with the Minnesota Twins. The Cedar Rapids Kernels have provided more good baseball in the first six weeks of this year’s Midwest [...]

As a schedule-maker, you’ll never make everyone happy when you’re scheduling teams to play eight conference games in a 14-team league. You can’t. Unless you give a team eight home games and none on the road. But that probably wouldn’t fly with the rest of the conference. The Big Ten released its 2014 football schedule [...]

CEDAR RAPIDS — Kurt Warner’s public charity is the First Things First Foundation, but his recurring theme is second-chances. That has been illustrated in his USA Network reality show, “The Moment,” in which Warner gives people the chance to pursue career dreams they had set aside when their lives took unexpected turns. It also was [...]