Wisconsin's Borland: Playing Iowa is 'meaningful'

CHICAGO - Chris Borland is one of only three Wisconsin players remaining who saw action the last time the Badgers faced Iowa at Camp Randall Stadium.

In that 2009 meeting, Borland recorded 10 tackles, including 2.5 for loss, earned one sack and forced a fumble as a true freshman linebacker.

"I remember that game. It was a tough loss," said Borland, recalling Iowa's 20-10 win.

Borland, a fifth-year All-American candidate for the Badgers, missed the 2010 game at Iowa City with a season-ending injury. With the teams' rivalry on a two-year hiatus in 2011 and 2012, four years will have passed before Borland personally faces the Hawkeyes on Nov. 2 in Iowa City.

"I'd love to play Iowa every year," he said. "It's a trophy game. We have that trophy in our locker room right now. It's really meaningful. I know we recruit a lot of the same guys. It's an area game; they're close by, obviously. I'd love to play them every year."

Iowa and Wisconsin missed one another only twice from 1937 through 2010, and that was in 1993-94 when the Big Ten expanded to include Penn State. When the league added Nebraska in 2011, Iowa and Wisconsin were split into opposite divisions based on a competitive equality. Both Wisconsin Athletics Director Barry Alvarez and Iowa's Gary Barta fought to save the annual series, but both conceded defeat when the numbers didn't work. The schools rotated off one another's schedule for two seasons and were slated to play just four times over a 10-year period.

It deeply wounded Alvarez, a Hall of Fame coach at Wisconsin and a former Iowa assistant under Hayden Fry.

"A three-hour drive to Iowa City, for our fans and their fans, was very convenient," Alvarez said in May. "That was hard. That was very difficult for us to lose."

When the Big Ten expanded and added Rutgers and Maryland for the 2014 season, the league realigned once more but this time based on geography. The East-West split was approved in May, and now Iowa and Wisconsin will play every year.

Entering this season, the teams are deadlocked at 42-42-2 in their 86 meetings. Their last game was a classic with Wisconsin pulling out a last-minute 31-30 victory at Kinnick Stadium. The win propelled the Badgers to the first of three straight Rose Bowls, while Iowa has declined since that loss with a 14-17 overall record.

Still, the records matter little in this series that virtually connects Madison and Iowa City along Highway 151 (at least to Cedar Rapids). Eight of the last nine meetings featured at least one ranked team. Before 2002, only 23 of their previous 77 games was either team rated.

"We have a pretty good rivalry game," Wisconsin wide receiver Jared Abbrederis said. "I think it just proves it with the last game that we had, how close it was. So I definitely think it's good to have Iowa back on the schedule.

"I think that's good to keep that consistency of playing teams, especially rivals year in and year out."