A Wisconsin-Iowa game at night in November? Welcome to the Big Ten in 2024 and beyond

Do you find yourself thinking “I never thought I’d see that” on a daily basis, if not hourly?

If you don’t, maybe you should. It even applies to college football. Fortunately, that’s just entertainment.

For instance, the news that Saturday’s Wisconsin-Iowa football game will be at 6:30 p.m. gives the Hawkeyes two home games in November, the other being the Nebraska game on Nov. 29.

Never thought I’d see that.

In one regard, it’s absolutely what you want if you’re playing in the Big Ten. If you aren’t playing on a Saturday night on a major network every so often, you’re nobody.

Of course, those of us slow to embrace change are still processing four Pac-12 refugees being part of the Big Ten.

To see Oregon tied with Indiana for the league-lead at 5-0 (Penn State is 4-0) is jarring for another reason. Namely, Indiana?

The Hoosiers have perhaps their three toughest opponents of the season in succession starting Saturday, so don’t expect their 8-0 overall record to turn into 12-0. But … Indiana?

Never thought I’d see that.

Had the Hoosiers’ renaissance happened a year ago, it would have made the imbalance of the East and West divisions of the Big Ten even more glaring. Pretend, if you will, that those divisions still exist.

It’s just like old times. The East has three ranked teams, the West zero. Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin are tied for the West lead at 3-2. Saturday’s Wisconsin-Iowa game is pivotal for determining the West champion.

And the Big Ten title game will be again a mismatch, with the East winning its 11th game without a loss in the East-West format.

So while the elimination of the divisions makes a game like Wisconsin-Iowa less pretend-important, the conference will get Oregon-Ohio State or Oregon-Penn State in Indianapolis and almost everybody will be happier.

In the Big 12, meanwhile, BYU and Iowa State are the last two unbeatens at 5-0 and 4-0.

Never thought I’d see that.

That’s no rip on the Cyclones. You may remember they were 8-1 in the Big 12 just four years ago, and that was with Oklahoma and Texas in the conference.

No, of course it’s the presence of BYU that makes that odd.

I watched the second half Colorado’s 34-23 win over Cincinnati Saturday night. Yes, that was a Big 12 game. Colorado is 4-1 in the conference. It looked good. Receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter and quarterback Shedeu Sanders are sensational.

Knowing Deion Sanders’ Buffaloes don’t play Iowa State, I wondered if they play BYU. They do not. And Iowa State doesn’t face BYU. Those are three of the four teams in the league with zero losses or one loss.

Kansas State is the other. It played BYU and Colorado, and will play Iowa State.

Still, the top two teams go to the Big 12 title game, and it’s quite possible the third-place team won’t have gotten a shot at either.

Never thought I’d see that.

SMU is 4-0 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Florida State is 1-6. You know what I’m going to say about that, so let’s move on.

The WNBA’s Indiana Fever fired head coach Christie Sides Sunday. Ah yes, the old Sunday morning news dump. Sides had two years left on her contract. Recently, the franchise changed its team president and its general manager.

This is all good news for Caitlin Clark. The Fever need a coach who understands Clark has to be the focal point every time a game is coming down to the wire.

It also needs someone improves the team via free agency rather than lag behind. The league has a lot of good unrestricted free agents. One is Indiana’s Kelsey Mitchell, whom the team needs to re-sign.

Indiana was 20-20 this season and reached the playoffs. The team got better as the season got longer. There’s no reason it can’t be a title-contender from this day forward as long as the organization knows what it’s doing.

Clark is under contract with the Fever through 2027. Indiana’s average home attendance this season was 17,035. The season before, it was 4,066. It’s time for the franchise to pay the player back with total competence.

Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com