The University of Maine’s football team will take on a familiar face to open the 2008 season.

The Black Bears will play the University of Iowa and head coach Kirk Ferentz, who formerly coached the Black Bears.

The game will be played in Iowa City on Aug. 30 at Kinnick Stadium, which seats 70,585.

It will be the fifth consecutive season that the Division 1-AA Black Bears will play a Division 1-A opponent. Division 1-A is now known as the Division 1 Football Bowl Sub-Division while 1-AA is known as the Division 1 Football Championship Sub-Division.

Maine travels to East Hartford, Conn. to battle the University of Connecticut on Sept. 8 in this year’s 1-A game.

Doug DeBiase, the assistant manager of athletic media relations at Maine, said the institution will receive a $400,000 guarantee from the University of Iowa.

That is the largest payout they have received from a 1-A game. The previous high was $350,000 from Nebraska and Mississippi State.

DeBiase said they haven’t decided upon a game time as yet.

“The interesting story line is that [Maine head coach] Jack Cosgrove was on Kirk Ferentz’s staff when he was at Maine. Jack was Kirk’s offensive coordinator,” said DeBiase.

Ferentz, who is starting his ninth year as the head coach at Iowa, was the head coach at Maine from 1990-92. Maine went 12-21 under Ferentz including a 6-5 campaign in ’92.

Ferentz left Maine to become the offensive line coach with the Cleveland Browns.

He was hired by former Browns head coach Bill Belichick, currently the head coach of the New England Patriots.

“We’re very excited to have the opportunity to go to Iowa City,” said Maine athletic director Blake James. “With the tie with Coach Ferentz and the great job our program has done in our 1-A games against Mississippi State, Nebraska and BC [Boston College], I can’t think of a better place to go for a 1-A game than Iowa City. They have a very passionate following and it should be a great experience for our guys and the program.”

James said they want to continue to schedule games against 1-A programs because it helps prepare them for their regular season games and “it is a big plus for our budget.”

Maine will receive $200,000 from Uconn, as it did from Boston College last year.

DeBiase said Ferentz was the first Maine coach to take on Division 1-A opponents.

The Bears lost to Hawaii 44-3 in 1990 and to Rutgers 40-17 the following season.

Ferentz is 55-43 in his eight seasons at Iowa, 51-24 over his last six.

He has guided his Hawkeyes to six consecutive Bowl games. He had a string of four consecutive January bowl games snapped last season when they lost to Texas 26-24 in the Alamo Bowl in December. Iowa was one of just four teams to make appearances in four straight January bowl games during that span.

The Hawkeyes finished 6-7 last season.

Ferentz is the second-winningest coach of all time at Iowa behind Hayden Fry (146).

He is a two-time Big Ten Coach of the Year and was the AP National Coach of the Year in 2002 when he led the Hawkeyes to an 11-2 record.

Maine began its current streak of games against Division 1-A opponents in 2004 when the Black Bears stunned Mississippi State 9-7.

Maine visited Nebraska the following year and lost 25-7 and the Black Bears suffered a 22-0 setback at Boston College last fall.

Nebraska and BC both went on to win bowl games those years with Nebraska beating Michigan 32-28 in the 2005 Alamo Bowl and BC edging Navy 25-24 in last season’s Meineke Car Care Bowl.

Mississippi State did not go to a bowl game in 2004.

Maine-UConn tickets on sale

Tickets are on sale for Maine’s football game against UConn on Sept. 8 at Rentschler Field.

DeBiase said tickets are $25 apiece and can be obtained by calling 581-BEAR (2327) or 1-800-756-TEAM (8326).

He said due to TV considerations, the game time has yet to be determined.