Tonight at 10 pm ET, the Oklahoma Sooners will square off against the Iowa Hawkeyes in the Insight Bowl from Sun Devil Stadium in Arizona. Interestingly enough, rather than this being Oklahoma’s 13^th straight bowl game and Iowa’s 10^th bowl game since 2001, the matchup has major implications in the Arena Football League… Bragging rights.

AFL Commissioner Jerry B. Kurz was a former Sooner player and VP of Broadcast, Communications and Branding for the AFL and “Arena Football Friday” on NFL Network announcer Anthony Herron was a star for the Hawkeyes.

“Oklahoma has been in some big games in recent years and they have been disappointed in several of those big games throughout the years. I hope Commissioner Kurz will forgive me once OU gets disappointed yet again in the Insight Bowl,” Herron said.

“Everyone should have hopes and desires; however, too often, those hopes and desires get dashed in the reality of day,” Kurz shot back.

Both League Executives are fond of their playing days. Herron, a former defensive captain of the Hawkeyes remembers his playing days well.

“During freshman year, I played as a true freshman. We viewed it as a disappointing year in 1997. We made a bowl game and were competitive in the Big 10 title hunt during the season but we suffered some key injuries. I went into my sophomore year knowing we would have to revamp a little bit. We really struggled that year,” Herron said.

Herron and the Hawkeyes were facing a coaching transition after legendary Head Coach Hayden Fry opted to retire following the 1998 season.

“We didn’t meet the team expectations that we had and the coaching transition in college is extremely tough, especially when it’s a guy as legendary as Hayden Fry. He was a legend in college football, University of Iowa and the entire state.”

For the final two years of his career Kirk Ferentz was at the helm of Iowa.

“He was trying to reshape the program to suit his temperament a little bit more than the players he had under Coach Fry,” Herron said. “The year after I left, in 2000 and then in 2001, they went to Bowl games and have been bowl eligible ever since then. I guess you could say they had to cut lose a little bit of dead weight and then the program kind of took off.”

Tonight, Ferentz will be leading the Hawkeyes out of the tunnel.

“Iowa and Oklahoma are great programs and it is going to be a tremendous game,” Kurz said. “Sure I am disappointed because I would have liked Oklahoma to play in the National Championship or a BCS bowl. But Oklahoma has been to about 45 bowls. That’s a pretty good number.”

Kurz, who was a member of the Sooners in the late 1960’s, witnessed Steve Owens become the Heisman Award winner.

“I was able to watch, on a regular basis, a Heisman Trophy winner carry the load. Steve Owens was a tremendous athlete. It was amazing to see someone like that,” he said.

Since then, a lot has changed. Oklahoma came into the 2011 ranked first in the preseason polls. The team is hoping to end a disappointed season with a bang.

“This game has a similar ring to it for me. Iowa is a talented team but between injury and a couple bowl suspensions, they have a couple of bodies that are missing,” Herron said.

And the suspension mounting on Iowa is huge. The team sat down running back Marcus Coker for the Insight Bowl just over a week ago for undisclosed disciplinary issues. The sophomore ranks second in Big Ten rushing with 1,384-yards and 15 touchdowns.

“It puts Iowa in a running back by committee position,” Herron said. “Oklahoma seems to be the more talented team so losing Coker is big.”

Iowa’s defense will also be tasked with the stellar quarterback in Landry Jones. Jones is Oklahoma’s all-time leader in passing yards and touchdowns but has struggled as of late.

“They have to find a way to pressure [Jones]. This is going to be Iowa’s defensive coordinator, Norm Parker’s last game. He has decided to retire after this week. I’m interested to see if we see what we always see from Norm Parker, a steady cover-two type of scheme, bend but don’t break mentality. Or is Norm going to pull out all of the stops, is he going to blitz? Rush this kid relentlessly and try to hit Jones as many times as he can?” Herron said.

Surprisingly enough, Herron and Kurz aren’t the only AFL personalities keeping a close eye on this one. AFL Founder and Hawkeye alumni, Jim Foster, will be in attendance. Foster’s son is currently a red shirt freshman at Iowa.

“We had dinner with him last night. It has been an outstanding experience for him,” Foster said. “It’s going to come down to which team shows up for both schools. On paper, you have to acknowledge that Oklahoma has an outstanding football team. They certainly have more talent when you look down the roster and where they were rated.”

Furthermore, Joe Kleinsmith, AFL Director of Football Operations, and Kurz’ son Matt also played in the Insight Bowl in 2007 for the Indiana Hoosiers.

“It was the first bowl appearance for Indiana in 13 years. We accomplished several goals and we played that game for our late coach Terry Hoepner. He was our inspiration that season. Being able to walk on the field with your best friends and teammates like Matt Kurz was a feeling you can't describe,” Kleinsmith said.

The matchup also features further ties to the AFL. During the coaching transition that Herron witnessed, former Hawkeye Bob Stoops was vying for the Iowa job.

“The fan base expected Stoops and I believe Stoops wanted the Iowa job but the Athletic Director threw everyone a curve ball,” Herron recalled.

Stoops has been at Oklahoma ever since.

“Bobby’s brother Mike, who was recently the Head Coach at Arizona, played arena football for the Pittsburgh Gladiators when I was Commissioner in the League’s first year. He did pretty well. There is a lot of heritage with those Stoops brothers coming out of Iowa, all three played there. That’s an interesting aspect to this game,” Foster said.

As far as tonight, Oklahoma is a 14-point favorite.

“I will put my big red Oklahoma hat on for Jerry Kurz. There is a lot of history with that program. They have been in a lot of big bowl games and have a lot of talent. If they show up and have their helmet screwed on right, they will be pretty hard to beat. You have to be realistic about that,” Foster said.

Herron, though, has another idea for his former team.

“Iowa won't completely shut down Oklahoma,” he said. “Landry Jones is going to throw for some big yards but he is still without his best wide receiver. The lack of depth in Oklahoma’s wide receiving corps is going to be enough for Iowa to pull off an upset. I’m going to say an Iowa victory, 30-26.”