Blake DuDonis (Fairfield AC & husband of HC) told us that they are close to Raina. He approached her last February about possibly coming to play us, and Iowa was open to playing.They are a very good opponent to help the Iowa team get better, especially given that Drake and UNI are having off years.
He said they were excited to "play in front of one of the best crowds in the country" and to get to face the kind of teams they'll hopefully get to see in the tournament.
He also said "We also recruit Iowa and Minnesota a decent bit, so also created a chance for some of our recruits to see us in person when normally they wouldn’t." Maybe not the player direction we'd prefer


But likely not Iowa recruits anyway.
I don't think Fairfield usually loses many to the portal. They tend to get good players from less successful midmajor teams (Marshall,Sienna, N Texas, etc.) They actually got Huerter from Rutgers last year and Alli Campbell from PSU in the portal from the Big10 for this season. Alli was a highly rated 5* (grade 98) Notre Dame recruit in the ESPN 2020 class. She hated ND. Apparently Ivey froze her out. She transferred to PSU quickly. She then had 2 ACL tears

but played 3 years at PSU and is spending her final grad/Covid year with Fairfield. She has never really been outstanding though, but was ok on the struggling PSU teams these last few years.