ISU Police getting ready for Saturday's "big game" in Ames

AMES, Iowa -- Iowa State University Police are getting ready for the 120,000 people who will be in and around Jack Trice Stadium in Ames for Saturday's football game against Iowa.

"We'll have just as many people outside as inside. Sixty-one thousand inside, and we'll have at least 61,000 on the outside," says Iowa State Police Chief Michael Newton.

He says ESPN's "College Gameday" show live from Jack Trice Stadium means an even earlier start for law enforcement.

"It definitely adds hours to the day. We'll start our operations around 4:00 a.m. in order to be prepared. It does bring some extra people into town," Newton says.

For a second Saturday in a row, the Iowa State football team will play in front of a capacity crowd. He says it was good to have the Northern Iowa game kick-off the season in Ames last week.

"We haven't had a game with full crowds in quite some time. What we found was, people forgot what the rules were. We spent a lot of time educating, and hopefully that will help us going into this week," Newton says.

The COVID-19 pandemic limited the number of people allowed the Jack Trice Stadium last year, and caused the cancellation of the annual Iowa State-Iowa rivalry game that was to be played at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City.

The Cyclones and Hawkeyes kick-off 3:30 p.m. Saturday.


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