With one slot open on the ISU football team’s 2005 schedule, ISU officials announced early this month the Cyclones would meet Division I-AA opponent Illinois State to kick off their season.

The problem? Under NCAA rules, a win over a I-AA opponent can only be counted toward bowl eligibility once every four years, and Iowa State’s 23-0 win over Northern Iowa last year used the Cyclones’ quota for the next three years.

Therefore, a win over the Redbirds wouldn’t help Iowa State get the six victories necessary to go to a bowl game.

That may change.

There is legislation before the NCAA that would allow schools to use a win over a I-AA school every season toward their bowl eligibility.

“There are other schools facing the same circumstances that we are, and because of that, we think there is enough support to pass the legislation,” said ISU athletics director Bruce Van De Velde. “The question remains: When would it go into effect? Would it go into effect immediately or one year from now? We’re hoping it would go into effect immediately.”

If the legislation is passed and were to go into effect immediately, a Cyclone win against Illinois State would leave them five wins from a postseason berth. Otherwise, Iowa State is back to square one.

“It’s a numbers game,” said ISU head football coach Dan McCarney.

McCarney and Van De Velde worked together to schedule Illinois State and came to an agreement that a home game was priority.

“We have two goals in mind every year,” Van De Velde said. “One is to make sure we have six home games. That is the most critical thing, first of all.

“The second thing is that we don’t overschedule, so we have an opportunity to have a fair schedule and have a chance of going to a bowl game.”

After improving from two wins in 2003 to seven wins, including a bowl victory, in 2004, Van De Velde said the team has higher expectations than just qualifying for a bowl.

“I think their goals are more then just to qualify for a bowl game,” Van De Velde said. “If they don’t quite reach those goals and they end up just winning six games, I would still like to see them go to a bowl, but it’s not going to be much different from the bowl games we’ve been to.

“I think this team would like to reach higher, and I think our fans do, too.”

There were several teams willing to play Iowa State, but all wanted a home game.

Troy, Houston, Minnesota, Southern California and Louisiana State were all opponent options for the Cyclones, but none were willing to come to Ames.

“We haven’t been successful finding a I-A home game,” Van De Velde said. “As a contingency, we scheduled Illinois State about six months ago and told them that if we needed to schedule a I-A game we would have the opportunity to get out of that contract. We haven’t been able to find a I-A home game.”

With another home game, Iowa State does a service to its fans and the community.

Van De Velde estimates that one home football game brings approximately $700,000 to the athletic department and around $2 million to the city.

“There are a lot of other activities around football that occur based on a home game,” Van De Velde said. “If we didn’t have that home game, it would impact the university, student life, the city of Ames and central Iowa in a negative way. We need six home games.”

With all the distraction that can come from the bowl-eligibility debate, McCarney knows what he and his team have to do.

“When all was said, we got a darn good Division I-AA team coming in here,” McCarney said.