Northern Iowa AD: No plans to play at Iowa, Iowa State in basketball

Chad Leistikow | The Des Moines Register

Show Caption Hide Caption Ben Jacobson: 'We had a hard time catching it anywhere near the block' UNI coach Ben Jacobson talks about the Panthers' 76-65 loss to Iowa State in the Hy-Vee Classic.

Northern Iowa athletics director David Harris understands the situation. But he’s still disappointed that the Hy-Vee Classic will end after the upcoming basketball season.

Iowa ultimately pulled the plug on the annual event at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, but both the Hawkeyes and Cyclones have the same stance going forward. If something can be worked out to bring UNI or Drake to their arenas, great; but there’s no talk of that happening, Harris said.

“From my standpoint, there’s nothing in the immediate future that we would be looking at doing,” Harris told the Register late Monday night.

Iowa athletics director Gary Barta told the Register earlier Monday that “it’s not our intention” to schedule UNI or Drake in the 2019-20 season and that he and coach Fran McCaffery would “wait and see” beyond that.

Iowa State athletics director Jamie Pollard said last week the Cyclones would be willing to continue the in-state games ... if they're at Hilton Coliseum.

“I understand that Gary and Jamie have to do what’s in the best interest of their programs,” said Harris, who has been on the flip side of this in-state relationship as a former senior associate athletic director at Iowa State. “But we feel like there are a lot of fans in the state that really enjoyed those games. I know our student-athletes really enjoyed competing against Iowa and Iowa State.”

Of the four teams affected, UNI loses the most value with the demise of the Hy-Vee Classic. The Panthers used a 2014 win against Iowa and a 2015 win against Iowa State as springboards toward two NCAA Tournament runs. UNI is annually a contender in the Missouri Valley Conference, and under coach Ben Jacobson has made four NCAA Tournaments (and won four games once there) since 2009.

By contrast, Iowa has two NCAA Tournament wins in three appearances in that span.

Harris said he’d be open to playing a road game at Iowa or Iowa State, but that isn’t being discussed.

“I’d want to have conversations with Jake to figure out when, if at any time, this would fit into our plans,” Harris said.

Meantime, there shouldn't be a significant change in how UNI schedules games outside the MVC. The Panthers have annually been aggressive in securing RPI-friendly, challenging matchups. In the last three years alone, they’ve played North Carolina twice, Xavier twice, Oklahoma and Villanova ... in addition to either Iowa or Iowa State.

“We have to be concerned with our entire non-conference schedule and make sure if we’re not going to be playing those games,” Harris said, “(that) we are still playing competitive games that give us a chance to be able to qualify for the NCAA Tournament, based on having a strong schedule.”