Iowa football announces every 2022 home game is sold out

The hype is building around Iowa football in 2022. For the first time in 11 years, every game at Kinnick Stadium will be sold out.

Iowa’s regular-season finale against Nebraska sold out Wednesday, meaning all seven home games are sellouts, Iowa Athletics announced. The Hawkeyes are coming off a big 2021 season, finishing 10-3 overall to clinch a Big Ten Championship appearance. They fell to Michigan in that game before falling to Kentucky in the Citrus Bowl.

At Big Ten Media Days as the sellouts kept piling up, Hawkeyes coach Kirk Ferentz shared why he thinks fans want to come out to Kinnick for games.

“I don’t track that stuff as close, but I’m just glad to hear people are excited,” Ferentz told reporters. “I would hope they would be. We’ve had some pretty good teams and I think we’re a good team to watch, a fun team to watch. … I’m glad to hear people want to be in Kinnick. We want them to be in Kinnick, we want it to be a fun place to come see a game. We start out with a head start there because we have such a great venue.

“But part of that’s us playing well, too. At least, that’s my history in football. The better you play, the more interest there’s going to be.”

Iowa was picked to finish second in the Big Ten West preseason poll behind Wisconsin and brings back plenty of playmakers, including linebackers Jack Campbell and tight end Sam LaPorta. Quarterback Spencer Petras is also due back after throwing for 1,880 yards and 10 touchdowns last season.

On the recruiting trail, Iowa brought in the No. 30 class in the country, according to the On3 Consensus Team Recruiting Ranking. The crown jewel of that group is safety Xavier Nwankpa — the No. 51 player in the country and the No. 1 player in the state of Iowa from the class of 2022, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.