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IOWA CITY – For the Iowa football team, Saturday’s home game with Arkansas State represents a chance for the Hawkeyes to improve their record to 5-0 for the first time since 1995.

For Arkansas State, the game has a more material meaning: It’s a chance to fund about a third of its football budget for the entire year.

Iowa will pay Arkansas State a guarantee of $900,000 to visit Kinnick Stadium, one of the largest amounts ever paid to a visiting team anywhere in the country.

It’s a sign of the times in college athletics.

“It is a real challenge right now for all teams to schedule,’’ Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. “For obvious reasons, we went to 12 games and I think that was a good thing. But when it was decided to do that … it doesn’t appear that anybody really thought about how it’s going to impact scheduling.

“So, as a result of that, you’re probably paying more than you were 15 years ago to bring opponents in to play in your stadium.’’

College football went to a 12-game schedule on a permanent basis in 2006 and teams from major conferences generally have wanted that extra game to be at home for revenue purposes. They also usually want it to be against a team they have a good chance of beating, to enhance their chances of landing a post-season bowl bid.

Finding lower-level Division I teams that can fit into a specific date in the schedule, sometimes on relatively short notice, have driven up the price.

Those programs need the big guarantee games to fund their programs. Arkansas State athletic director Dean Lee recently told the Sports Business Journal that, “There is a necessity for us to make the most of our guarantee games.’’ He said ASU plays two such games every year. The Red Wolves visited Nebraska in addition to Iowa this season. They played at Alabama and Texas A&M in 2008 and at Texas and Tennessee in 2007.

Lee also admitted it is good business not to schedule these games too far in advance.

“A lot of times the people you’re talking to are looking at limited opportunities for a specific date and that can work in your favor,’’ he said.

The ASU-Iowa game was arranged only a little more than a year ago and Iowa was forced to pay a premium price.

Ferentz said this week he wouldn’t mind seeing college football go to a 13-game regular season that would allow the Big Ten to play a full round robin schedule. The Hawkeyes currently play eight conference games and four non-conference games. The 13-game slate could accommodate 10 conference games with just three non-league games, eliminating the pressure to pay so many big guarantees.

“It seems like we’re all talking about playing post-Thanksgiving, which is fine,’’ Ferentz said. “But if we’re going to do that, then why don’t we just play 13?’’

There is a chance Iowa could find itself scrambling to fill a vacancy again next year. The 2010 schedule currently is full with non-league games against Eastern Illinois, Ball State and Iowa State at home and against Arizona on the road. But Ball State coach Stan Parrish has said he would like to back out of the agreement with Iowa so that he doesn’t have to play Purdue and Iowa in consecutive weeks.

Iowa is scheduled to pay Ball State an $800,000 guarantee. Purdue is paying only $350,000.

“I haven’t heard much about it although I did read the article and my thought was: Why don’t they drop Purdue?’’ Ferentz said. “I think we signed first.’’