What would make some sense would be to become a feeder school. We all know Iowa Western is a stacked JUCO school. Then you have Iowa, Minnesota, Iowa State, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, and Kansas State with Des Moines as a centerpiece. You've got North Dakota State, Missouri State, Northern Iowa, South Dakota, South Dakota State, Illinois State, Southern Illinois, Western Illinois all as D1 AA schools from the best conference in that level within reach. It makes sense for Iowa to finally get a feeder school for colleges going.
A former Iowa player in Jim Poggi is coaching at St. Frances in Maryland, which has become a National Powerhouse on the football scene. They have taken in kids from all over the DC and Baltimore areas. The #1 player in the country who committed to Bama played there. They talked him into playing football his freshman year. He was a basketball guy. He was one of 23 homeless kids that were on the team and 3 years later he was the #1 player and DE prospect in the country.
Biff Poggi coached at Gilman High in Maryland for 19 years. He was a School Board member at St. Frances even when coaching at Gilman. He donated $60,000 to St. Frances to get the football program going. He stepped away from Gilman and joined St. Frances a few years ago. St. Frances Catholic has been helping underprivileged youth in the Baltimore area for decades. Now with him running the program he as gotten several D1 athletes from surrounding areas to the team. He has been criticized for it, but they are bringing in kids who are as underprivileged as others and giving them the chance to excel in the abilities they have. 23 homeless kids played for them last year at they were 13-0 #4 in the country. They are considered even better this year.
I'm not saying Dowling could or would do something similar, but they can consider that type of approach in the Midwest. I don't think we have that type of powerhouse Academy or Prep school in the Midwest and it would be considerably harder to be successful at it in Des Moines as compared to St. Louis, Kansas City, Minneapolis, or Chicago.