Each season Gary Barta, the Iowa Hawkeyes Athletic Director, puts together a twelve-game schedule for the Iowa football team. There are some consistencies like the nine-game conference schedule Iowa will play including six games against their Big Ten West counterparts and also the Cy-Hawk trophy game against the Cyclones.
His biggest task is finding two other non-conference games to schedule. Ideally, you want to find a team the first week of the season that allows Kirk Ferentz and his staff to work out a few of the kinks for the team while playing an easily winnable game.