SEC

Iowa's Travis Meade (61) dumps a bucket of Gatorade on Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz during the closing moments of their Orange Bowl victory over Georgia Tech Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2010 at Land Shark Stadium in Miami, FL. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)

Hancock breaks down ‘College Football Playoff’

Executive director discusses committee, bowl lineups, dates, television on future postseason

IOWA CITY — For a sport that modifies its postseason at a glacial pace, college football’s changes will feel like an avalanche next year. The much-despised Bowl Championship Series, which gave the sport a true No. 1 versus No. 2 match-up and a heck of a lot controversy, will exit after January. In its place comes [...]

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Fans pose for photos outside of Lucas Oil Stadium before the Big Ten Conference championship NCAA college football game between Wisconsin and Nebraska, Saturday, Dec. 1, 2012, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/AJ Mast)

Numbers show geography works for B1G football realignment 11

The Big Ten made a big deal out of competitive equality when it split into divisions for the 2011 football season. Competition was the No. 1 component in balancing divisional play, and rightly so. The newest member, Nebraska, was part of an acrimonious geographical split when the Big Eight morphed into the Big 12 back [...]

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Big Ten Conference Commissioner Jim Delany answers a question during a news conference, Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2012, in Piscataway, N.J., after he and Rutgers Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Tim Pernetti  and Rutgers President Robert Barchi announced that Rutgers will join the Big Ten. Rutgers will join the conference in all sports at a date to be determined. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

What’s next for B1G expansion, football realignment?

Still more B1G expansion to come? Plus, extra thoughts on football realignment

The Big Ten’s push to conquer the college athletics universe has hit a pregnant pause about two weeks after accepting Maryland and Rutgers as the league’s 13th and 14th members. Everyone expects the league to consider future expansion, and Commissioner Jim Delany reiterated the possibility in his subsequent news conferences and interviews. Rather than sitting [...]

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junior hemingway

Michigan players feel responsible to carry Big Ten banner against Alabama

Wolverines play Crimson Tide on Sept. 1 3

CHICAGO — The Southeastern Conference has turned the Big Ten from slow-footed Northern punching bags into a bona fide Yankee football punchline in recent years. The SEC owns an 10-7 edge against the Big Ten in bowls the last six years, which sounds modest until you look more closely at the games. The SEC’s average margin [...]

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Iowa fan Jim Bergeson, of Wichita, Kan., holds up a Rose Bowl sign during Iowa's 20-3 win over Wisconsin, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2002, in Iowa City, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Rose Bowl, B1G show interest in plus-one 1

IOWA CITY — A plus-one college football bowl system has gained traction to replace the current Bowl Championship Series but still remains behind a four-team playoff in rhetoric and public acceptance. Nebraska Chancellor Harvey Perlman said Monday a plus-one ranks as the second choice among Big Ten presidents and chancellors as a postseason structure, ahead [...]

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Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany talks with the media during a news conference, Tuesday, May 18, 2010, in Chicago. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

Based on history, controversy will follow any college football playoff model

UI President Sally Mason says 'any conversation about the subject would be premature' before matter brought before college presidents

CHICAGO — Controversy and subjectivity reign in college football, a sport where human polls determine national championships. It comes as no surprise that with 11 split titles in 50 years and annual tweaks to form a more perfect bowl system that more changes are coming. It’s just a matter of how, who and where. This [...]

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Wisconsin Coach Bret Bielema, center, speaks during a news conference at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2011. Wisconsin and Oregon are scheduled to play in the Rose Bowl NCAA college football game in Pasadena, Calif., Monday, Jan. 2, 2012. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

On Iowa Daily Briefing 4.26.12 4

Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany and SEC counterpart Mike Slive are the most powerful men in college sports. They are to the world of college football what Daniel Webster and John C. Calhoun were to American politics in the 1830s and 1840s. When they walk into the room, everybody listens. And more often than not, [...]

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Alliant reaches new credit agreement with Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase

Alliant Energy and its utility subsidiaries have reached a new five-year credit agreement with several lenders will provide additional liquidity to implement its strategic plan, the company said in a SEC filing Thursday, Dec. 22. The agreement provides up to $300 million for Alliant Energy, $300 million for Interstate Power and Light, and $400 million [...]

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The Alliant Energy building, downtown Cedar Rapids.

Alliant tightens ‘change in control’ provisions to protect execs

Provisions would protect executives in case of takeover
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Minnesota's Brandon Kirksey (96) carries the Floyd of Rosedale trophy off the field after Minnesota defeated Iowa 22-21 Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Tom Olmscheid)

Traditional dates vital for stout college football rivalries

For more than a generation, Floyd of Rosedale changed hands only in November. From 1983 through 2010, either Iowa or Minnesota ended Big Ten play against one another, depending on the former 11-team Big Ten’s awkward scheduling. But that changed this year. For the first time since 1982, Iowa and Minnesota met in October. Next [...]

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