Maybe the weightiest Floyd game in a long time

The Big Ten West Division tournament begins with Iowa and Minnesota this week.

You want a college football playoff, this is it. The Big Ten West has four contenders - Nebraska (8-1, 3-1 B1G), Iowa (6-2, 3-1), Minnesota (6-2, 3-1) and Wisconsin (6-2, 3-1).

In the next four weeks, the rest of the season, these four teams will face each other in what amounts to a round-robin tournament. The fun begins this weekend in Minneapolis, when the Hawkeyes visit the Gophers at TCF Bank Stadium.

Yes, it's an Iowa-Minnesota matchup with some weight to it. The winner continues on as a viable candidate to win the West, basically having a say on the field in its fortunes. Of course, the loser carries on, but will need the Big Ten West washing machine to spit out sound forgotten $20s in bluejeans.

'We expect it to be a tough, grind-it-out kind of game,” said running back Mark Weisman, who has 324 yards on 45 carries (7.2 yards per rush) in two games against Minnesota. 'Every Big Ten game is going to be tough. You've got to come out ready to play. It's a mindset.”

After the Hawkeyes and Gophers kick it off, it's on to Nebraska at Wisconsin on Nov. 15. Then, Iowa and Wisconsin meet at Kinnick Stadium while Nebraska plays host to Minnesota on Nov. 22. Iowa and Nebraska face off on Black Friday (Nov. 28) at Kinnick with the Badgers playing host to Minnesota on Nov. 29.

So, each Saturday will have at least one game with postseason implications. Minnesota might have the tallest building to leap, with a game against Ohio State at TCF Bank on Nov. 15.

Minnesota was on bye last week after suffering a tough 28-24 defeat at Illinois. Gophers running back David Cobb, the No. 3 rusher in the Big Ten with 141.38 yards a game, was stripped of the ball and Illinois' V'Angelo Bentley returned it 15 yards for the deciding points with 6:33 left in the game.

You saw how the Maryland result sat two weeks with the Hawkeyes.

'Fourth quarter late, they trust me with the ball,” said Cobb, who has 1,131 yards (5.36 yards per carry) and seven TDs. 'I dropped it. I fumbled and that cost us the game.”

Now, the search for an Iowa-Minnesota game that had some really weighty implications in recent years for both teams probably begins and ends with Saturday's game. Iowa clinched a share of the Big Ten title and a BCS bowl berth in 2002 at the Metrodome. Minnesota was a solid 7-3 going into that game, a 45-21 Iowa victory. Minnesota was 9-2 and Iowa 7-2 going into the 2003 game in Iowa City, which ended 40-22 Iowa.

Minnesota was 6-4 and out of title hunt in 2004 when it played host to the 7-2 Hawkeyes. Minnesota rushed for 337 yards in that game with an NFL-caliber running backs Marion Barber and Laurence Maroney. Iowa rushed for 6 yards and won on after the Gophers missed a 51-yard field goal wide left with 28 seconds left.

That victory put Iowa in position to claim a share of the Big Ten title the next week against Wisconsin, which the Hawkeyes shared with Michigan.

What you have here is basically March Madness in November. It begins this weekend with Iowa-Minnesota, two teams that are - this being the first season of Big Ten West football and all - prototypes of the Big Ten West, in that the game should be a grunt fest with guards making nearly as many noticeable plays as quarterbacks.

'I think they're going to play a lot like these guys did today,” guard Austin Blythe said after Iowa's 48-7 victory over Northwestern. 'They're a tough, physical football team and I think it's going to be a lot like today, having to grind it out and run the ball.”

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.com