Iowa's Schedule, Worst to Best: No. 6 Wisconsin

I'm on vacation, but the Hlog is not. Through the power of time-stamping, while I'm gone this blog will publish a ranking of Iowa's 12 football games in 2013 in terms of being interesting.

To see the teams that have already been ranked, click here and scroll. To see photos of dolphins, click here.

No. 6. Wisconsin. Nov. 2, Game #9

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder. Another old saying is out of sight, out of mind. So which is it?

Iowa hasn't played Wisconsin since 2010, which seems ridiculous given they had met 86 times and every year from 1995 through 2010. And, oh yeah, the two schools are just 177 miles apart.

Plus, the Badgers have gone to three straight Rose Bowls.

So why don't I have this game No. 1 or at least No. 2? Insanity? Sure, that's always a possibility.

But it's mostly the unknown. I have no idea what kind of team Wisconsin will look like under new head coach Gary Andersen. Wisconsin was 8-6 last year, not 13-1, and reached the Big Ten title game (where it pulverized Nebraska) only because Ohio State and Penn State were ineligible to represent the Leaders Division in Indianapolis.

We don't know Andersen, yet. Now, were Bret Bielema still Wisconsin's coach, I put this game No. 1. Seriously. Because Iowa fans didn't care for Badger Bielema nearly as much as Hawkeye Bielema. Sort of like New Yorkers didn't like Red Sox Roger Clemens as much as Yankee Roger Clemens.

Then you remember the last time the two teams met, with Wisconsin using a fake punt to perfection in pulling out a 31-30 win at Kinnick Stadium that was a season-turner for both teams. The sight of Bielema laughing and dancing off the field burned in Iowa memories. But he's gone, off to Arkansas. And with him goes some of the oompf in this rivalry, at least temporarily.

The good news is, Iowa and Wisconsin will be in the same division from 2014 until who knows when, so there will be no more of those dopey two-year gaps. If you can bus to another school in your conference, you should be playing that school every year.

Now, if Iowa wants to play in a postseason game that isn't the Rose Bowl but still has some juice to it, an Iowa-Arkansas Capital One or Outback or Gator bowl would be high-spirited, don't you think?

But never mind that. The Hawkeyes and Badgers are together again. Sing it, Emmylou.