Three Iowa football sellouts are announced and more could be coming

The University of Iowa announced two home sellouts Wednesday for upcoming Hawkeye football games this fall … and then a third once general-public sales began Thursday.

The Hawkeyes will have a full house of 69,250 fans at Kinnick Stadium on Sept. 10 against Iowa State, Oct. 1 against Michigan and Nov. 12 vs. Wisconsin. And the other four home games on a schedule with fan-friendly kickoff times were approaching sellout status as of Thursday afternoon. 

The Cy-Hawk game, back in Kinnick for the first time since 2018 (after the teams didn’t play in 2020 due to COVID-19) is set for 3 p.m. CT.

The Michigan game — a rematch of last year’s Big Ten Conference championship game — doesn’t have a start time yet. That one could land in Fox's "Big Noon" (11 a.m. CT) slot or at night or somewhere in between.

Wisconsin also doesn't have a kickoff time, but that mid-November matchup could pit the two favorites of the Big Ten West Division. That's always a hard-hitting grudge match.

The three home sellouts for 2022 already matches last year's three (vs. Penn State, Purdue and Minnesota).

“Credit to our incredible fan support. It’s a great home schedule,” UI deputy director of athletics Matt Henderson told the Register. “The gameday environment in and around the community is one of the best in the nation.

“Definitely strong interest for all of our games.”

Could Iowa football surpass last year's home game attendance? 

Almost definitely.

The university has sold nearly 5,000 new season tickets while selling out its student allotment (8,500) as well as three-game mini-packs and Fight For Iowa mobile passes. Single-game tickets for existing season ticketholders and donors went on sale Monday, which led to Wednesday’s announcement of a sellout. Add all that up, and the number of single-game tickets available was dwindling fast.

Less than 3,000 tickets remained for Iowa's opener against South Dakota State (Sept. 3, 11 a.m., FS1) as of Thursday afternoon; less than 1,000 remained for Nevada (Sept. 17, 6:30 p.m., BTN) and Northwestern (Oct. 29, 2 or 2:30 p.m.); and less than 2,000 were available for Nebraska (Nov. 25, 3 p.m., BTN). Tickets were posted for sale to the general public at HawkeyeSports.com on Thursday.

That makes it almost a certainty that the Hawkeyes (10-4 last season) will easily surpass last year’s average home attendance of 66,777.