Brad Banks to start for Barnstormers

It was announced yesterday that former Iowa quarterback and Heisman runner-up, Brad Banks, will be the starting quarterback for the Iowa Barnstormers as they open up their 2011 season against Pittsburgh on Saturday. Banks has been playing football in Canada since he led Iowa to a Big Ten Title and a trip to the Orange Bowl. His return to Iowa should help generate some buzz for the Barnstormers. This first game is in Pittsburgh, but they return home to Des Moines for a game with Spokane on March 25. I've always wanted to go to a Barnstormers game and now with Banks starting I think I might have to go.

Tickets to Iowa-Nebraska will be hard to find

This isn't exactly news. Nebraska is known for its huge fan-base that not only sells out Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, but will buy thousands and thousands of tickets for games on the road too. Add on to that with the fact that this is a border rivalry, the first year of Nebraska in the Big Ten, and that this game has some extra cachet now that it has been moved to Black Friday. So, it isn't surprising that tickets to the game will be hard to find. Iowa's share of the tickets will likely go to the large donors (and family members of players and coaches) and the rest of us will have to turn to the secondary markets. With Lincoln relatively a short drive for many Iowa fans (just under 4 hours away for me), I'd still expect a lot of fans trying to get tickets or maybe just showing up to tailgate.

Iowa will hold 2 Pro Days

Iowa's first Pro Day is schedule for next Monday, March 21. The problem is that there is an NFL owners meeting slated that same day, so according to Nation Football Post Iowa is holding a second Pro Day in April (emphasis added):

According to league sources with knowledge of the situation, there's so much demand for meetings with Iowa players that Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz and his staff have scheduled another day for NFL decision-makers to meet with players on April 4.

Iowa sent 9 guys to the Combine and has a history of producing NFL players so it's no surprise that there is a high demand to attend the Pro Day.

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