A wrapup to the Kernels season and a note about Rule 56:

This is to assure baseball fans that the Cedar Rapids franchise will have an affiliation with a Major League team that will provide the players for the 2013 Midwest League campaign.

In fact, the Kernels have already released their schedule for next season, putting to bed what was a record-tying worst season for the Kernels franchise on the field this year.

We've been making jokes around the ballpark about Rule 56 of the Player Development Contract that deals with obtaining a new working agreement with a Major League club, and the rumors that accompany that sort of story.

In reality, when this sort of thing happens, there are rules put down by Minor League baseball about obtaining a new working agreement, which includes the line that nothing can be said or done before the 16th of September. But I should imagine after that date, things will move rapidly.

What I can tell you is that everything the LA Angels owned, including batting practice balls, has been loaded up and sent back to Los Angeles, which tells you the field has been cleared and that Cedar Rapids baseball is ready to enter into a new player development agreement with somebody other than the Angels.

PART II: I can't leave this column without a comment about Iowa State versus Iowa on Saturday. The Hawks lead this series, 39-20, and most of that margin was earned during the Hayden Fry years.

In fact, Iowa State ended a 15-year losing streak to the Hawkeyes in 1998. Since that time, the Cyclones are 8-and-6 against Iowa and 7-and-6 against Coach Kirk Ferentz. And that includes that thrilling triple-overtime win for ISU last year.

This year's game finds Iowa favored by 3 1/2 points, which seems to be the right number. Iowa will be expected to show a much-improved passing game following the 18-17 squeaker against Northern Illinois. And I am sure James Vandenberg will expect much better protection.

A lot of good players will be out there Saturday afternoon at Kinnick Stadium on both sides. And if history is any teacher, it should be a game much like last year's Cyclone win in Ames, only with a 3-point different outcome.

Yes, it should be that close. And the home field for the Hawks should prevail.

(Bob Brooks is sports director at KMRY and has been one of the leading voices of college and prep sports in Eastern Iowa for more than 65 years. He is a 10-time winner of the Iowa Sportscaster of the Year Award, and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Indiana in 2004. His sports reports can be heard weekday afternoons at 4:30 and 5:30, and Saturdays at 6:40 for the Hawkeye football wrap-up.)