Iowa State faces a lose-lose situation in tomorrow’s game against Northern Iowa. Win and all they have done is beat a Division I-AA team. Lose to the Panthers, and “Oh my god, Iowa State can’t even beat a team in a lower division.”

This is not fair because Northern Iowa has already shown that they are one of the top two or three teams in I-AA. What that means is the Panthers could probably beat 40 or 50 of the bottom programs in Division I.

If Iowa State lose to Northern Iowa it would not be as disastrous as a loss to Missouri or Oklahoma State, but would seem so to the majority of football fans.

Northern Iowa doesn’t get any respect as a I-AA team. Not even the NCAA counts victories over I-AA teams in the victory count for a Division I team to be eligible for a bowl. A team must have six victories against Division I schools to be eligible for a bowl.

Many Division I-AA athletic directors, Northern Iowa’s Christopher Ritrievi included, have lobbied the NCAA to change the rule. They want the NCAA to amend the rule to allow Division I schools to count one victory against I-AA schools to count in the victory total.

They may have a point.

While a victory over Northern Iowa by Iowa State tomorrow will not count in the Cyclone victory count for bowls, last season’s victory over Ohio University and Nevada-Las Vegas did.

The indirect result of the NCAA rule on Division I victories is that many teams have quit padding their schedule with I-AA schools and have replaced them with lower Division I teams.

Allowing Division I schools one victory against a I-AA team will not discourage teams from padding their schedules, but will instead give teams such as Northern Iowa their proper due.

With Northern Iowa playing Iowa State in football tomorrow, I thought I would take the opportunity to take a glance at ISU’s upcoming men’s basketball schedule.

ISU athletic media relation’s director Tom Kroeschell informed me that after a one-year absence, the ISU-UNI series will resume starting in the 19978-98. What is even better is that the series will return to its home-and-home series.

Good for the ISU athletic department. I thought it was stupid to take Northern Iowa off the basketball schedule in the first place.

I thought so especially when I looked at the upcoming schedule and saw that the only road game the Cyclones play is at Iowa City.

The Cyclones will not arrive at Columbia, Mo., on Jan. 4 as experienced road warriors. They will have played a schedule full of home games against teams such as Tennessee-Martin and Texas-Pan American.

Nearly every team schedules their fare share of cupcakes into their basketball, but next season’s ISU schedule is almost entirely devoid of any team that could be a Top 25 team.

Adding a home game against Tennessee-Martin and taking away a road game against state-rival Northern Iowa might add revenue to the ISU athletic coffers, but what happens when Iowa State travels to Missouri in January after having played only one road game?

Bill Kopatich is a senior in journalism from Des Moines.