Gophers' win over Iowa shows why rivalry trophies still matter and always should

The Gophers’ 13-10 win over Iowa might’ve set offensive football back 100 years, but that doesn’t matter. P.J. Fleck led Minnesota to its first win over the Hawkeyes at home since 2014. Floyd of Rosedale is back in Minneapolis next to Paul Bunyan’s Axe and the Little Brown Jug, and that statement means more to Gophers football than the average college football observer realizes.

The sport of college football is almost unrecognizable compared to what it looked like even 10 years ago, but it’s still one of the most unique products American sports have to offer. Every professional sports league has roughly 30 teams competing for a chance to win the championship. FBS football has 138 teams in 2026, and there are probably fewer than 20 of those programs that have real national championship aspirations every season.

On a smaller scale, conferences like the Big Ten now have 18 teams. Half the programs in the league probably have conference championship aspirations every season. What does all this mean? Standards for a successful season are wildly different for all 138 teams, even at the power-conference level, which includes fewer than 70 teams between the Big Ten, ACC, SEC and Big 12. Pro sports have become championship-or-bust; that’s not college football, and it never has been.

The future of the sport will continue to change with the looming 24-team College Football Playoff (CFP), but that’s a future discussion. In the 12-team format, schools like Minnesota always were a long shot at even getting to the tournament.

An average Gophers football fan certainly dreamed of Minnesota making a run at the CFP this season, but Minnesota hasn’t finished a season ranked inside the top 12 of any major poll since 1962. The Pig, Jug and Axe are Minnesota’s best chances of winning any trophies in a given season.

The modern perception of bowl games has completely changed since Minnesota’s last trip to the Rose Bowl in 1961. Winning those games used to matter. A trip to the Liberty Bowl in 1986, two Sun Bowl appearances under Glen Mason, three more trips to the Music City Bowl and Minnesota’s Outback Bowl win in 2020 were all fun memories, but I’m sure the average Gophers fan would say the rivalry trophies mean more.

Every fan of any sports team dreams of their team winning championships, but Minnesota football hasn’t even been in that discussion in at least 64 years. Getting a seat at the CFP table is certainly an intriguing dream, but Minnesota might never have a roster to compete with programs like Georgia, Ohio State, Texas and Miami en route to a national title.

Minnesota does have the roster to compete with programs like Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa. Having all three trophies at the same time is something the program hasn’t done since 1978. Everything doesn’t have to be about the national championship. Only one team can win that.

Winning is fun, trophies are fun and history is fun. The Gophers certainly have a lot of things they need to fix offensively, but Saturday’s win over Iowa is one that Fleck and his program should celebrate for a while.