Sunday's matchup against Northwestern marks the sixth time in seven years Iowa has played on football's biggest day.
Super Bowl Sunday is the NFL's biggest celebration of the year.
It obviously marks the christening of a new world champion, but the day is also a chance for football fans to gather together and watch one final football game before the offseason.
A typical Super Bowl party won't usually begin until the evening, but Iowa men's basketball fans will beginning their parties three hours earlier. The red-hot Hawkeyes (18-5, 7-4) will take on Northwestern (10-13, 2-10) at 2 p.m. inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
If it feels like Iowa always plays on Super Bowl Sunday, it's because it has. Sunday's matchup will mark the sixth time in the last seven years the Hawkeyes will play on football's big day.
Outside of a two-point loss at unranked Indiana in 2021, Iowa has won five of those contests. Let's revisit some of them:
February 2, 2020: No. 18 Iowa 72, No. 19 Illinois 65
This game brought back the old-school Iowa-Illinois rivalry that had been missing since the 1990s. Brad Underwood's rebuild of the Fighting Illini was nearing completion by this point, and they came to Iowa City looking to end a five-game losing streak to the Hawkeyes.
Illinois came close to spoiling the party, but an infamous Luka Garza dagger sent them home with another loss. Garza finished with 25 points and 10 rebounds en route to his first of consecutive Big Ten Player of the Year honors.
Though the Fighting Illini fell short that day, they've earned the last laugh, losing to Iowa just once since (2023).
What happened in Super Bowl LIV?
The Hawkeyes' win was just the beginning of a special day for Iowa fans that are also Kansas City Chiefs fans. The Chiefs rallied from a 10-point fourth quarter deficit to defeat the San Francisco 49ers, 31-20 - their first Super Bowl victory in 50 seasons.
February 13, 2022: Iowa 98, Nebraska 75
Wisconsin's Johnny Davis would be named Big Ten Player of the Year in 2022, but many fans contend to this day that Keegan Murray was snubbed from the honor. Murray certainly helped his case on this day, scoring a season-high 37 points to lead Iowa past Nebraska at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
This game was part of a stretch that saw the Hawkeyes win eight out of their final 10 regular season games, a run that resulted in the program's third Big Ten Tournament championship.
What happened in Super Bowl LVI?
That night's Super Bowl featured an unlikely matchup between the Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bengals held the lead for most of the second half, but Matthew Stafford, who was traded to the Rams in the offseason, found eventual Super Bowl MVP Cooper Kupp for the go-ahead touchdown and 23-20 triumph.
February 11, 2024: Iowa 90, Minnesota 85
The Hawkeyes looked dead in the water for much of this game, but Patrick McCaffery and Payton Sandfort rallied Iowa back from 20 down in the second half to steal an improbable victory at home. It was the second-largest second half comeback in Hawkeye program history, and propelled Iowa on a late-season surge where it nearly made the NCAA tournament.
What happened in Super Bowl LVIII?
In a game that will forever live in Super Bowl lore, the Chiefs defeated the 49ers in a Super Bowl LIV rematch in overtime, 25-22. San Francisco won the coin toss in overtime, but opted to receive rather than kick it away, allowing Kansas City to answer the Niners' field goal with a game-winning touchdown - their third Super Bowl crown of the Patrick Mahomes era.
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