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IOWA CITY — It’s a new era for the Big Ten and the Iowa football program.
On Wednesday, the Big Ten announced how the league would align into two divisions beginning in 2011 when Nebraska joins the league. Iowa will enter a division with Minnesota and Nebraska, along with Northwestern, Michigan and Michigan State. The Hawkeyes will play those five schools annually — plus Purdue as a cross-divisional rival — each year.
The opposite division consists of Wisconsin, Illinois, Penn State, Ohio State, Indiana and Purdue. In 2011, the league will play its first title game.
Playing Nebraska each year excites Iowa Athletic Director Gary Barta, and the Big Ten shifted Iowa’s traditional end-of-season rivalry game from Minnesota to Nebraska. Iowa will play Nebraska on Thanksgiving weekend in 2011 and 2012. The Hawkeyes had ended their league season with Minnesota in 25 of the past 27 years.
Referring to the Nebraska athletic director, Barta said: “Both Tom Osborne and myself indicated that our states and our schools would see this as a tremendous rivalry.
“I remember when we were looking at the Fiesta Bowl last year and the possibility of a Nebraska-Iowa matchup and the national attention that that was getting. Both Tom Osborne and myself talked how we both felt that was a terrific rivalry.”
Iowa will play two of the league’s other five schools on a rotating basis, including Wisconsin. The schools have one of the Big Ten’s most competitive, long-term rivalries. Iowa leads the series 42-41-2. They also play for the Heartland Trophy.
“In a perfect world, we’d be playing Wisconsin every year,” Barta said. “We’re playing two of the three that I thought made the most sense from a football standpoint — Wisconsin, Nebraska and Minnesota,’’ he added.
“We’ve got two of those three every year, and we’ll still play Wisconsin on a regular basis.
“The Heartland Trophy, hopefully it will sit in our trophy case for a long time until after this season when we play again. It’ll remain a rivalry; it just won’t be played every year.”
Iowa continues its oldest rivalry at 103 games with Minnesota. The teams play for Floyd of Rosedale, one of college football’s most recognizable trophies.
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