Let's be honest: there's only one game we care about this weekend. This isn't the season that any of us hoped for, but a third consecutive win over Florida would go a long way towards turning it into one with highlights we fondly remember rather than a total disappointment. Beyond our parochial interests, this weekend doesn't really have much to offer. The favorites in our two National Games of Interest are favored by a combined 53 points. There's just not a lot of must-see TV this weekend.
But there is one game that is even less worthy of your attention than all of the others. It's a game about which even fans of the two participating teams will have a hard time caring. It's this week's National Game of Disinterest: No. 24 Wisconsin at Iowa.
We don't care much for the increasingly inaccurately named Big 10. Even if you ignore their pompous and irrelevant claims about academic superiority, they just aren't very good at football. They have the worst bowl record of any AQ conference in the BCS era. Their Legends division leader lost to a mediocre Notre Dame team, and their presumptive Leaders division champion wasn't even bowl eligible last year. The coach of the team that won every Big 10 Championship Game ever played has yet to win a single conference game as the head man at Arkansas.
But beyond all of the attendant mediocrity, this week's National Game of Disinterest has the one thing that makes many Big 10 games completely contemptible: a stupid trophy. Yes, the winnner of this weekend's Wisconsin-Iowa game will take home the Heartland Trophy, a cheap-looking, brass trinket that accurately represents the significance of this contest. (Hint: It's a bull.)
Go Dawgs! Beat Florida!