Last week’s game against Arkansas State fell a few thousands tickets short of a sellout and there still are tickets remaining for three of the last four home games, but just try finding a ticket for Saturday night’s game with Michigan. There are a few out there, but it’s going to cost you.

According to Fansnap.com, a site that accumulates ticket listings from all over the Internet, the cheapest ticket you can buy online for this game is $182.50. That gets you into row 69 of section 110, deep in the southeast corner of Kinnick Stadium. The most expensive ticket out there right now? For $706, you can get seven rows up on the 45-yard line directly behind the Iowa bench.

This game obviously is a hot ticket because it’s a marquee opponent and it’s homecoming, but it’s still hard to figure why it sold out a long, long time ago while games against decent opponents such as Northwestern and Minnesota still have tickets available. I wonder if the fact that it’s a night game doesn’t have something to do with it.

It’s a huge improvement on the old-style Astroturf of 20 or 30 years ago. It’s softer and less conducive to injuries.

But the new turf at Kinnick Stadium still holds and radiates heat like a pot-bellied stove.

Reporters attending last Saturday’s public scrimmage found that out firsthand. It wasn’t really an excessively hot day, but it felt like you were standing over a heat vent. It’s hard to imagine playing a football game on that on a hot September day.

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz, who never has been a big fan of artificial surfaces, seemed happy with his first prolonged exposure to the turf. And he was out there wearing a long sleeved shirt.

“It didn’t seem like our players were affected by the heat today,’’ he said. “It seems like a great surface. I think it has all the give that grass does and best of all it gives us some consistency where things like rain and snow won’t affect us as much.’’