What took place on the field Saturday was football. What was held against the goalpost in celebratory tree-chopping symbolism was a trophy. However, what happened at Camp Randall this weekend was supposed to be a rivalry – but it wasn’t.
Wisconsin winning the rights to hold Paul Bunyan’s Axe for a ninth consecutive year gave further indication of the Badgers’ dominance over their border bound foes to the west. It also showed just how far this so-called rivalry has dissolved.
A quick look at the Microsoft Word definition for rivalry reveals a noun with three syllables and the first definition as “condition of competitiveness.” The battle for the axe hasn’t had a single ounce of competitiveness for years.
Seriously, when was the last time anyone witnessed a Gopher carrying that enormous axe? Many Minnesota players have graduated with the unfulfilled dream of chopping down a goalpost. The Gophers can’t even touch the axe until they win a game against the Badgers, and from the looks of it, that day remains far in the future.
Wisconsin has been a top 25 football program (aside from the last few weeks) for a majority of the past decade. Minnesota has not. Minnesota’s best era ended in the 1940s; Wisconsin’s has just begun.
Wisconsin has won back-to-back Big Ten championships. Minnesota hasn’t won the Big Ten since 1967 when Bart Starr was quarterbacking the Packers to a victory in the first ever Super Bowl.
A border battle should employ a pair of teams that actually battle for supremacy with the results – or in this case a trophy – swapping sides from year to year. Yet Wisconsin keeps winning the war.
The Badgers have become the big brother that wins every time, no matter how close the little brother gets. If the recent games are any indication, little brother might not win that big ‘ole axe for a long time.
The best rivalries have upsets, dogfights, relevancy and impact. This one has had little of each.
Nobody thought Minnesota would upend Russell Wilson and the 2011 football team last year, but even in Wisconsin’s worst seasons the Badgers have prospered against the Gophers. In Bret Bielema’s second season, when Wisconsin finished 7-6, the Badgers still beat up on their little brother.
Even in the years Wisconsin has been ranked, the Gophers haven’t pulled off an upset.
The last significant game between Bucky and Goldy Gopher came back nearly 20 years ago in 1993 when Minnesota handed Wisconsin – the eventual Big Ten champion – its only loss of the season.
Unfortunately for the life of the rivalry, the gap between Wisconsin and Minnesota doesn’t seem to be tapering. The Badgers have won the last three axe games by an average of 24 points. Jerry Kill’s tenure as head coach at Minnesota has shown some promise, but a 25-point loss during a season where Wisconsin has been less than impressive does not serve as an example of a “condition of competitiveness.”
Recently, the only similarity held between the two programs is that they play in cold fall weather in the Midwest, and they both own a respective side of the sought-after axe, Minnesota’s gold and Wisconsin’s red.
They might both possess a side, but the Badgers pretty much own the whole thing. After all, it has been nearly a decade since it last crossed the state border. The Badgers get to hold it, play with it, bring it to golf events and show it off whenever they please. This has been going on for eight years now and will continue until at least late November 2013.
An even closer look at the axe shows that it is “Presented by the National W Club,” an organization that supports Wisconsin. How could it last very long in Minneapolis?
In fact, I’m not sure what Minnesota would do if they had the chance to take the axe back. They might not recognize it with how long it’s been. The last Goldy Gopher stand-in to hold Bunyan’s Axe is likely in his or her 30s.
The only thing the Wisconsin-Minnesota game can claim at this point is that it dates back to 1890 and the two teams have played more times than any pair of opponents in college football history.
It’s a fashionable claim to say that their 122 games trump all other rivalries, but when they seem somewhat meaningless season after season, how unrivaled can this rivalry be?
Furthermore, little brother claims much more than Wisconsin as their rival. Iowa, Michigan and Penn State all hold rivalries with Minnesota. Wisconsin hasn’t played Iowa since 2010, so claiming Minnesota as the only other rival can’t say much for the Badgers.
Wisconsin’s recent history with other opponents like Michigan State or Ohio State has run the gamut of a typical rivalry with the aforementioned upsets, dogfights, relevancy and impact. Until the Gophers and Badgers get on the same level of (preferably high) competition, there will be little “condition of competitiveness.”
Wisconsin holds proximity and history with little brother Minnesota, but that’s about it. Only one child continues to dominate this sibling rivalry, if rivalry is really even an accurate way to describe the competition at this point.
Sean is a Junior majoring in journalism and communication arts. What do you think of the Wisconsin-Minnesota rivalry? Send him an email at [email protected] or a Tweet at @sean_zak.
