Iowa State-Incarnate Word game canceled; here's how the Cyclones scheduled Drake for a Dec. 1 finale

Danny Lawhon , Tommy Birch | The Des Moines Register

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It may have all started with a tweet.

After Iowa State’s Sept. 1 football season opener against South Dakota State was canceled because of weather, Drake athletic director Brian Hardin jokingly tweeted that the Cyclones and Nebraska should get to Drake Stadium for a game.

Couldn’t help but notice both @CycloneFB & @HuskerFBNation had games cancelled yesterday. Both teams might need a 12th game. Opponent, date & location could be tough to identify.



Let’s play matchmaker:



2018 Bulldog Bowl featuring ISU vs Nebraska on Dec. 1 at Drake Stadium. — Brian Hardin (@DrakeADHardin) September 2, 2018

An hour or two later, Hardin’s phone was ringing with a call from Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard.

“I saw his name pop up in my caller ID and I’m like, ‘Oh great — he’s going to get into me about this tweet that I put out there, jokingly trying to say, 'Hey, why don’t you guys split the difference and come play in Des Moines at our stadium?'” Hardin said. “But, it wasn’t that at all.

"It was him saying, ‘Hey, I’ve got a real creative idea here for you.’”

The idea then: a Drake versus Iowa State football game.

Well, it’s actually happening now.

Iowa State is dropping its initially scheduled Dec. 1 game against Incarnate Word. Instead, the Cyclones will now face Drake on the same day at 11 a.m. at Jack Trice Stadium in Ames.

“We’re most grateful for Drake Athletics director Brian Hardin, coach Rick Fox and the Bulldog leadership team for working with us through a very fluid situation,” Pollard said in a statement issued by the school.”

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Financial details for the replacement game will be announced later. But the game has been in the works for a while. Iowa State first went looking for a new opponent shortly after the September cancellation.

Iowa State lined up a replacement game with Incarnate Word about two weeks later. But the Cardinals recently secured an at-large berth to the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs. They’ll face Montana State on Saturday.

If Incarnate Word were to win that game, Iowa State would be left without an opponent, again.

The two schools tried scheduling a game earlier in the year. Iowa State even tried securing a wavier that would have allowed a win over the Bulldogs to count toward bowl-eligibility.

The waiver was denied, so next week's game will be part of the overall win-loss ledger for the history books, but nothing more.

Iowa State already has six wins locked up now, anyway, so it no longer needs the victory for those purposes. But the Cyclones still want a game.

And they’re getting it with the Bulldogs, a non-scholarship team that is part of the Pioneer Football League. Drake owns a 7-3 overall record and a 6-2 conference mark in.

It’s the first meeting between the two programs since 1985, when the Bulldogs beat the Cyclones 20-17.

“I think it’s a tremendous opportunity for central Iowa to get these two programs on the field for the first time in 33 years,” Hardin said. “It will be a really unique experience for everyone that will be a part of it.”

Hardin said “everyone wins” in this situation. For his Drake players, it’s an opportunity of a lifetime.

“For our student athletes, this will be a bowl-game type atmosphere for them,” Hardin said.

Hardin said Iowa State fans will benefit from it, too.

“It’s a chance for them to come out and see their bowl-eligible team play one more time at Jack Trice Stadium,” Hardin said.

The game is scheduled to be broadcast on Cyclones.TV.