This Could Become College Baseball’s Next Great Tradition

The University of Iowa announced it will host the University of Kansas in a baseball exhibition at the Field of Dreams ballpark in Dyersville, Iowa, at 1 p.m. CT on October 10th. All tickets are $12 before fees and will be general admission.

Kansas is coming off one of its best seasons in program history. The Jayhawks won the Big 12 regular season and tournament championships while also hosting and winning the Lawrence Regional. Kansas was also able to host their first-ever Super Regional,, where they ran into a buzzsaw in the Oklahoma Sooners. The Sooners went on to win the National Championship.

Iowa is coming off a solid season as well. They finished the season 33-23 and were able to advance to their 11th consecutive Big 10 tournament. The Hawkeyes are looking to continue their winning ways in the 2027 season but will get the Jayhawks for this exhibition game as they build toward next season.

The History

Field of Dreams ballpark was built for the filming of the 1989 film, Field of Dreams. Kevin Costner starred in the film as an Iowa farmer named Ray Kinsella. Other big names like James Earl Jones (Terrance Mann) and Ray Liotta (“Shoeless” Joe Jackson) starred alongside Costner. The setting is iconic, with corn fields surrounding the ball field and stadium. It has become a tourist attraction in what most folks would call “middle of nowhere Iowa”.

We have seen Major League Baseball have major success with their Field of Dreams games in recent years. The first game saw the Chicago White Sox defeat the New York Yankees 9-8 in a slugfest on August 12th, 2021. Watching home runs fly into a cornfield by major league hitters for the first time was truly an incredible experience! The second edition of MLB’s Field of Dreams game took place on August 11th, 2022 between the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds. The Cubs won that game 4-2. The MLB Field of Dreams series resumes this summer on August 13th with a matchup between the Minnesota Twins and Philadelphia Phillies.

This is a no-brainer for both the Iowa and Kansas baseball programs. Both schools are looking to continue positive momentum in their programs, and playing a game like this will give the Jayhawks and Hawkeyes a boost to their profile during the offseason. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see this game streamed on ESPN+ or a similar platform. The upcoming Twins and Phillies game on August 13th will be streamed on Netflix.

The game will be a sellout. There are only 4,200 seats available, but it can increase to around 8,000 for big events. This will likely qualify as a big event. Despite being in the middle of football season, this featured baseball game will have no problem getting fans out to the ballpark. Iowa plays Washington on Friday, October 9th, so there won’t be any issue with Iowa fans having an internal struggle over choosing to watch their Hawkeyes play football or baseball.

Why You Can Go

Kansas football will be playing at Utah on October 10th, and the kickoff time is currently to be determined. However, considering the game is played in Utah and will be a “western” game for the Big 12, it is likely to be a late afternoon or night game for the Jayhawks. That would give Kansas fans time to head up to Dyersville, watch their Jayhawk baseball team take on Iowa at the Field of Dreams, and then head to a local bar to catch the football game later in the day. It could make for a fun weekend in Iowa for Jayhawks fans.

Now, I know Iowa State fans dislike both the Hawkeyes and Jayhawks, but getting the chance to catch a cool event in their home state might be enough to push aside the ill-will toward those programs to catch a unique game at Field of Dreams ballpark, especially if they live close to the event. Iowa State plays BYU on Friday, October 9th, so missing a football game won’t be on the table for Cyclone fans either. Let us know what you think, Cyclone fans. If nothing else, you could just go boo every pitch from the first inning until the final out!

“If you build it, they will come…” is a great quote from the Field of Dreams movie. It happened with Major League Baseball, and now the first D1 college exhibition will take place between Iowa and Kansas at Field of Dreams ballpark. Assuming this goes well, it wouldn’t surprise me to see a regular season series pop up in the next couple of years between two D1 programs. Could we see Iowa State host a series there in the future? Maybe Iowa will get the first regular season series. If things go well with Iowa and Kansas, maybe they will do a regular season game there in the future between the two programs. No matter what happens this fall, it seems like things are tracking in the direction where we will see more games at Field of Dreams Stadium in the near future, and we love to see it.