The kickoff times have been announced for Iowa's first 3 games of the season. The games against Northern Illinois, Iowa State, and UNI will all begin at 2:30 PM. Pretty spectacular news in my book. I was almost certain that all 3 of these were destine for early starts. I love the afternoon kicks...plenty of time in the morning to get ready, eat lunch, etc... And the game is over in time for dinner. Nice.
The latter two games will be televised on BTN, which is really beefing up its 2:30 time slot offerings, a start time that in the past was mostly reserved for ABC/ESPN.
The Northern Illinois game will be televised on ESPNU. Which is a serious UGH. I don't really want to fork out more cash to Mediacom just to watch 1 football game and a couple of basketball games. It should be broadcast on ESPN3 as well, so it'll at least be watchable online. Hopefully Mediacom Connection Channel can pick it up or something. Anyway, it's technically a NIU home game, even though the game's at Soldier Field, so the MAC has the rights to the game. ESPNU isn't bad considering last year Wisconsin played NIU in the exact same circumstances and that game was on ESPN3 only. So take that Badgers.
The game times are now set for 8 games on Iowa's schedule. The games against Minnesota, Michigan State, Northwestern, and Nebraska are all 11:00 kicks, and the Penn State game is the lone night game at 7:00.