Hlas column: This time, a 2:30 time slot is no showcase for Hawkeyes

I was crestfallen Saturday night while sitting in the Kinnick Stadium press box after the Ohio State-Iowa football game.

You see, this news came down from the Big Ten office: This Saturday's Iowa-Minnesota game will be at 2:30 p.m., not 11 a.m.

Ugh. That tacks three-and-a-half more hours onto the Hawkeyes' regular-season. It will now end in the darkness and the cold of a late November day in Minnesota. As a metaphor, though, maybe it fits.

But at least it's for Floyd of Rosedale. This weekend, Associated Press surveyed the voters on its college football Top 25 poll asking them their thoughts on the best college football traveling trophy.

The winner was Floyd. which AP college football writer Ralph D. Russo called “the most coveted piece of fake bacon in college sports.”

If that isn't the lamest attempt to find something uplifting about Iowa-Minnesota in 2010, please don't tell me what tops it.

This coming weekend is my favorite of the year in college football. So much is decided and so many rivalry games are played. The Big Ten had sat out this weekend until this year, wrapping up its season before Thanksgiving.

But now, Michigan-Ohio State (and starting next year, Iowa-Nebraska) join the end-of-November fray with Auburn-Alabama, Oklahoma-Oklahoma State, LSU-Arkansas and Florida-Florida State, to name but four.

But the final Iowa-Minnesota end-of-season game is just a face-in-the-crowd game this year, shoved to the shadows of the Big Ten Network while Wisconsin tries to bolt down a Rose Bowl berth by beating Northwestern in Madison.

Things could be a whole lot worse, Hawkeye followers. You could be a Minnesota football fan. Other things I think include:

Just because Nebraska got 16 penalties for 140 yards and Texas A&M got 2 for 10 doesn't mean the Big 12 was trying to stick it to the Cornhuskers in their 9-6 loss to the Aggies.

A conspiracy of that scale and magnitude would be, well, criminal. But that officiating was brutal, and this comes from someone who tries to give the refs the benefit of the doubt.

What was worse was the sideline behavior of Nebraska Coach Bo Pelini. From what I saw, he made Arizona's Mike Stoops look as stoic as Bill Belichick. Pelini didn't act like a nut only toward the officials. He screamed at Cornhusker quarterback Taylor Martinez on the sideline and pointed his finger in Martinez's chest.

Kudos to all coaches at every level who never do such things.

Nebraska Chancellor Harvey Perlman told Associated Press on Sunday that Pelini's verbal assault of officials did not reflect well on the university or the football program.

Perlman didn't indicate whether disciplinary action would be taken. Put some teeth into your words, Chancellor.

Next ... Boise State is the best team in the country.

I don't care who the Broncos play, they've got it all. If you're Oregon, you'd rather play Auburn in the BCS title game than Boise State. And they'll get to show it against someone really good in January in the if the BCS' voters and/or its bowls don't monkey around too much.

That said, I voted Boise State fourth on my AP ballot behind Oregon, Auburn and TCU this week because those unbeaten teams have vanquished better opposition. If Alabama beats Auburn Friday, the gate better swing open for either Boise or TCU in the title game, or we'll know what really is criminal in college football.