#IowaSim19 Is Awesome

There is a very large Iowa Hawkeye football fan base "cult like" following intensely following  video game results on Twitter every week.  Thousands of Hawkeye faithful pay attention to a Twitter account that gives up to the minute results to a video game simulation of the Hawkeyes versus that week's opponent.  The simulation is on a PS3, it uses EA Sports NCAA Football 14, and it is awesome.

"So in 2013, I started simulating Iowa football games week-by-week using NCAA Football 14 on the PS3. I update the rosters, depth charts and even the weather to make it as accurate as possible each and every week," said creator Cody Hills (@ByCodyHIlls).  "But it sort of evolved into posting stats and highlights onto Twitter, and really only about 15-20 folks interacted with it — probably the only followers I had back then, too. It was just fun and silly."

From 2013 to date the simulation is an incredible 61-13 in correctly predicting the winner of the Iowa game each week-- and is currently 4-0 this year and nailed the 17 points scored by the Hawks versus Iowa State.

"It started to gain a little bit of a following because of its accuracy during the 2015 season, when it correctly predicted every game — including all 12 Iowa wins and the loss to Michigan St in the B1G title game," said Hills.

The broadcast on Twitter has been so big that the Iowa at Penn State simulation from last season had over 115,000 views the night it was on Twitter-- more than the fans who attended the game in Beaver Stadium.  Same thing for this year's simulation versus Iowa State, the views eclipsed the capacity at Jack Trice Stadium.

This year Cody wanted to do something more with the simulation.  He decided to open up each week's simulation to a sponsor-- "simply to those who make a donation to the University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital on the simulation's behalf."

Originally, "StuffNThings" Podcast (@StuffNThingsPod on Twitter) made a $75 donation and helped to promote the simulation and the donation drive.  StuffNThings has become his season long sponsor, but each week there are openings for a weekly sponsor-- in fact next week's Penn State at Iowa game is sponsored by Pat Angerer.

To be a sponsor, you can send Cody a direct message on Twitter showing their donation confirmation page and he will recognize the sponsor before and after the simulation.  Cody just recently opened a Venmo Account for the simulation: IowaSim and you can use that link to become a sponsor, as well.

This is another great example of what Iowa fans will do for the kids.  This is incredibly fun to follow and such a great idea.

By the way, here is the thread of last night Iowa at Michigan simulation.  If you want a spoiler on the results, they are posted further down the thread.

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