More from athletics directors on possible Big Ten realignment (with poll)

It's clear after interviews with Minnesota Athletics Director Joel Maturi and Wisconsin Athletics Director Barry Alvarez that both schools value their football rivalries with Iowa.

Wisconsin's series with Iowa ranks among the tightest, most-played in college football history. Iowa leads 42-41-2 in an intense series. Wisconsin also features several former Hawkeyes in prominent places, such as Alvarez (a former assistant coach under Hayden Fry), Coach Bret Bielema (a former Iowa team captain and assistant coach) and associate athletics director John Chadima (a former Iowa team manager).

"I think it ranks up there with one of the better rivalries," Alvarez said. "I think it's very comparable our rivalry with Minnesota. You have bordering states; it's easy for a fan to get to an away game. Ours might be a little unique, because of the ties I had with Iowa and also with Bret has with Iowa.

"Over the years, when I was at Iowa, I don't think we ever lost. We tied with Wisconsin one year. When I came here, we didn't have a lot of success early on, and my better teams didn't play them those first two years, my first two good teams."

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The rivalry sizzled from the mid-70s through 1996. Iowa went 17-0-1 over an 18-game stretch, leading to an intensity from the Wisconsin sideline. The Badgers then dominated the next five years, followed by a four-game Iowa winning streak.

"I think regardless of who's won, they've all been competitive games," Alvarez said. "Every once in a while there's been a blowout but for the most part they've been competitive, they've been physical games, so your fans can go, they know they'll have a chance to win."

Minnesota and Iowa have played every year since 1930, 103 times overall. While that number pales to the 119 games between Wisconsin-Minnesota, it's still significant to Maturi. In fact, Maturi declined to say which rivalry was most important to the Gopher fans.

"I would be doing a disservice of saying this one is most important because it might be most important to me personally, but it may not be most important to our fans," Maturi said. "In many ways that may be a healthy thing. It's not like I can say this one is the one because our fans are really passionate."

The Big Ten seems destined for realignment for 2011 when Nebraska joins the league as its 12th member. Commissioner Jim Delany said in June a divisional alignment will be based first on competitive fit, rivalries second and geography third. Publicly, all league officials are humming the same tune.

"We want what's best for obviously the University of Minnesota, that's who we are, but also what's best for the conference," Maturi said. "We're a good team player, and I just think that every athletic director is coming in this meeting with that in mind."

"As a conference, we have not yet met to discuss specific future scheduling as a result of the addition of Nebraska," Iowa Athletics Director Gary Barta wrote in an e-mail response. "I expect to begin more detailed conversations later this summer. Until then, I'm not going to speculate on which teams we might or might not play or when."