CEDAR RAPIDS — Jarrod Uthoff plans to visit two more colleges in the coming weeks, but the Cedar Rapids Jefferson graduate said Wednesday he hopes to make a decision fairly soon. Uthoff, a 6-foot-8 forward who red-shirted last season, left the Wisconsin basketball program in April and has made visits to Creighton and Iowa State. He [...]

Last week’s announcement of a Big 12-SEC “Champions” bowl game means the plus-one postseason system has risen from the ash heap of college football history. It also could render all four-team playoff talk moot by next month. The SEC and Big 12 agreed to place their champions/runners-ups in a bowl game after teams are selected [...]

The “On Iowa” podcast with Marc Morehouse and Scott Dochterman breaks down the intense debate surrounding college football’s postseason, the current bowl structure and the potential for additional conference realignment with Gazette columnist Mike Hlas. We also answer your Twitter questions. To listen to this podcast, click on the side or below icon or download [...]

Iowa and Illinois will reignite their border football rivalry in 2015-16, ending a six-year hiatus that began in 2009. The schools rotate back on to one another’s football schedule those seasons, which was released by the Big Ten this morning. Iowa also will play Penn State in 2015-16, while longtime rival Wisconsin and Ohio State [...]

CHICAGO — With a road schedule reminiscent of a trucking agency, the Purdue college baseball program has become a national aberration. In a sport where the best schools rarely leave home outside of conference play, the Big Ten champion Boilermakers rank No. 9 nationally despite playing their first 20 games on the road. Poor early-season [...]

CHICAGO — Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said his league is “constantly aware” of recent realignment developments sweeping college athletics. “We continue to look at it, but we’re very comfortable with where we are,” Delany said at the Big Ten spring meetings. “There’s another reality that since we expanded to 12 and decided to not [...]

CHICAGO — Wisconsin Athletics Director Barry Alvarez said he was surprised with how quickly Jarrod Uthoff’s transfer case escalated into a national story last month. “The thing got out of hand so fast and it was in the media so fast and in the social media so fast the process never really had a chance [...]

CHICAGO — Fan bases at Iowa and Nebraska are known nationally to take over bowl sites and the turn the stadium into a pseudo-home environment for their football teams. Yet each school’s athletics department sold around half of its bowl ticket allotment last year, costing both the school and Big Ten significant revenue. Iowa was required [...]

Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany spoke for 34 minutes on Tuesday about the revamping of the bowl system, which includes a playoff structure. There were plenty of interesting anecdotes and few decisions but Delany confirmed the league is open to conference champions and at-large teams in a four-team event. Here’s what Delany said about the [...]

The “On Iowa” podcast with Marc Morehouse and Scott Dochterman talks about the revamped college football postseason at the Big Ten meetings in Chicago. We also answer your Twitter questions

To listen to this podcast, click on side or below icon or download it at iTunes

CHICAGO — Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany and the league’s athletics directors, who once defended the bowl system like the Knights Templar guarded the Holy Grail, now want to preserve the bowls by adding a four-team playoff within their structure. Nothing more, nothing less. “If we’re going to expand this from two teams to four [...]

CHICAGO — The last bastion of the bowl system’s good ole boys’ club now wants it both ways like the rest of America. Big Ten athletics directors, who once defended the bowl system like the Knights Templar guarded the Holy Grail, now want to preserve the bowls by adding a four-team playoff within their structure. Nothing [...]

CHICAGO — Big Ten administrators and school athletics directors meet today and Wednesday to discuss multiple topics, including likely a revamped college football postseason and the intra-conference transfer rule. Marc Morehouse and I will post blogs around the clock from the Sofitel Hotel on these topics and more during the next two days and afterward. For [...]

The Iowa men’s basketball team will play at Virginia Tech on Nov. 27, as part of the 2012 Big-Ten-ACC Challenge. Iowa has played Virginia Tech twice before, losing both meetings in Challenge games.  The Hokies edged Iowa, 69-65, on Nov. 29, 2006 in Blacksburg, Va., and 70-64 on Dec. 1, 2009 in Iowa City. Virginia Tech [...]

Iowa guard Eric May was hampered with a back injury the last two months of his junior season, which limited his effectiveness in a variety of ways. May, a 6-foot-5 incoming senior from Dubuque, started the first 21 games last year. His final start was against Nebraska on Jan. 26, when he played 19 minutes. [...]

NEWTON — Iowa forward Melsahn Basabe admitted after the basketball season he has something to prove next year. Apparently he said the same thing to Coach Fran McCaffery in their end-of-season meeting, and he’s lived those words this offseason. “I said, ‘OK, Melsahn, evaluate your season for me,’” McCaffery said Wednesday at the Jasper County I-Club. “I want [...]

IOWA CITY — Don Nelson will end his quest Saturday for the one accomplishment that has eluded him all these years — a college diploma. Nelson, the NBA’s winningest coach, will graduate from the University of Iowa and receive his diploma from UI President Sally Mason 50 years after leaving the school. It was a [...]

IOWA CITY — Iowa’s new indoor football practice facility and adjacent outdoor practice fields will be completed by the time the program enters training camp, Iowa Athletics Director Gary Barta said Thursday. The 100,000-square foot, fixed-roof facility replaces the 27-year-old Bubble, which was deflated on April 20. The Bubble had 72,000 square feet. “I didn’t [...]

Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said it’s unlikely the program will schedule a high-major opponent for a single game this season. “It doesn’t look like it,” McCaffery said. “Those games are harder to pull off than you think. I’d like to do it. Next year we’re probably going to try to start earlier.” He said the [...]

NEWTON – Iowa Athletics Director Gary Barta and men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery have held informal talks about altering McCaffery’s contract but nothing is imminent both men said Wednesday night. “It’s not like we have to have it done tomorrow, and we’re certainly approaching it that way,” Barta said before the Jasper County I-Club spring [...]