Tony Petitti led the push for a 24-team College Football Playoff for programs like Minnesota. “I don’t get why we can’t have a Minnesota-Iowa game have real impact every so often, like every year actually," he said back in May. "Why can’t we do that?”
Unlike the Big Ten commissioner, I don't think the Playoff has to be watered down for the Gophers and the Hawkeyes to have a real impact on the Playoff chase. In fact, that's exactly what happened last Saturday. Thanks to the win over No. 15 Iowa, Minnesota now has the opportunity to move firmly into the Playoff race.
1. Minnesota at No. 4 Indiana (3:30 p.m. ET, CBS): In 2018, PJ Fleck got before the media and argued that if Minnesota ever wanted to catch Iowa and Minnesota, it needed to keep him employed there for at least another 10 years.
Those weren't his exact words, of course. Two days before the Gophers faced the Hawkeyes for the ancient Floyd of Rosedale, Fleck pointed out that Minnesota was 4-27 in its last 31 games against its border rivals. The reason, Fleck argued, was that Iowa and Minnesota played under the same culture for decades, while Minnesota was locked in a cycle of perpetual catch-up by changing head coaches every few years. Hired in 2017, Fleck went 5-7 and scored 20 points total in losses to Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan in the previous season.
"How can you get to that point by: new offense every year or every two years, new defenses, new special teams, new coaches, new head coach, new culture, new identity, new reads, new systems, new players, new beliefs of what they should recruit, how can you expect to do that?" Fleck said. "The reason why they are so successful is they've had the same system, the same coaches, the same people that they can recruit to. They can develop in the same strength staff."
It didn't happen overnight -- two days after that quote, Iowa thumped Minnesota 48-31 -- but the worm has turned.
After upending No. 15 Iowa 13-10 last Saturday, Minnesota now owns the Floyd of Rosedale, Paul Bunyan's Axe (Wisconsin) and the Little Brown Jug (Michigan) simultaneously for the first time since 1978.
"It's unique. You've got to earn it. When you walk by that trophy case, I don't really walk past it that often. You have to at times look at it and capture that moment. You're talking 50 years you haven't had those in the same room, older than me. You stop and say that's pretty cool, walk out and move on with your day," Fleck said earlier this week. "That's why you come to the University of Minnesota. That's why I love coaching here. You had grown adults acting like children, that's what sports is all about." Speaking of grown adults acting like children, Fleck said the 20-14 Michigan win was the best day of his life outside of his wedding and the birth of his children.
Minnesota held all three rivalry trophies for all of two weeks. The Gophers carried wins over Wisconsin and Michigan into the '78 season, defeated Iowa on Oct. 10, 1978, and then lost 42-10 in Ann Arbor two weeks later. Such is the case now, with this year's Michigan and Iowa wins combining with the 17-7 defeat of Wisconsin last November.
The last time Minnesota defeated Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan within the same season: 1967. The 2026 Gophers get their chance Nov. 27 in Madison.
Speaking of the '67 team, that's the last time Minnesota claimed a share of the Big Ten championship. Monumental as it is for Minnesota to own a rivalry trifecta, something even more important is at stake this weekend.
Of the six Big Ten teams entering the weekend 3-1 or better in league play, Fleck's is the only one unranked in the latest AP poll (there's a good reason for that, which we'll get to below). The Gophers own wins over two teams that were ranked in preseason but aren't today (Michigan and Washington), plus the Iowa win, which plunged the Hawkeyes from No. 15 to unranked. But it doesn't matter where Minnesota is ranked today. Where might they be ranked come Sunday, Nov. 8? Or, more importantly, Tuesday, Nov. 10?
On Saturday, Minnesota visits No. 4 Indiana, and afterward hosts undefeated and 7th-ranked UCLA. A win over the defending national champions would represent the highest AP-ranked team Fleck has ever beaten, and the program's highest ranked-win since defeating No. 2 Penn State in 1999*. Minnesota hasn't beaten top-15 teams in consecutive weeks in 1956, and the last FBS team to beat top-15 teams in three consecutive weeks was the legendary 2001 Miami team.
Obviously, Minnesota has to win both games for any of this to matter. Can they do it? Honestly, it's a long shot. The Gophers could lose 27-7 to Indiana on Saturday and cover the spread. But there is definitely a path. If Minnesota does upset the Hoosiers and then the Bruins, it will be because they successfully dragged both offenses into playing disgusting football. Opposing passers were 30-of-58 for 299 yards with one touchdown and five interceptions in Minnesota's wins over Michigan and Iowa, which the Gophers won by scores of 20-14 and 13-10. Indiana scored 15 points on Ohio State and needed overtime to get to 13 against Michigan, with Josh Hoover going 7-of-17 for 60 yards with an interception in regulation. That's pretty disgusting. UCLA is tied for last in the Big Ten with six touchdown passes on the season. That game could also get disgusting.
With blowout losses to Mississippi State and Purdue, Minnesota needs to win out to reach the CFP. If the Gophers do drop a game along the way, they'll have to settle for the best consolation prize of all time: beating their oldest rival, Wisconsin, for the third straight time and fifth in six tries; securing their longest period of success against the Badgers since the late 1980s; and beating all three historic rivals in the same season for the first time 60 years.
PJ Fleck of 2026 has proven PJ Fleck of 2018 correct.
(* Penn State was No. 4 in the CFP poll when Fleck and the Gophers beat them in 2019, but No. 5 in the AP.)
2. No. 17 Florida vs. No. 3 Georgia (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC): Has any team ever gone from unranked to the AP top-10, then from the AP top-10 to unranked, and then from unranked to the AP top-10 again within a 6-week span? No, I'm seriously asking because I have no idea if that's ever happened before.
That's what's on the table for Florida, who could sandwich ugly losses to Missouri and South Carolina with wins over Ole Miss, Texas and Georgia if they're victorious in the Cocktail... sorry, the Invesco QQQ Atlanta Gridiron Classic (why do these marketing losers even bother with this nonsense?). Florida hasn't fared too well since Kirby got things up and running in Athens; their only win in this series post-2017 was the 2020 covid year. The most interesting figure in this game is Florida offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner, the Georgia native and former Bulldogs assistant who got three cracks at the Dawgs while calling plays at Georgia Tech.
If you're Faulkner, do you go with opening day starter Aaron Philo or backup Tramell Jones, last seen slicing and dicing Texas over the final 32 minutes of that game? Considering both were listed as questionable on Wednesday night, the answer is simple: whoever's healthiest.
3. No. 2 Ohio State at USC (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC): Ohio State is going on the road with a true freshman quarterback making his first start, and they're touchdown favorites. Says it all about both programs, doesn't it? At 6-2, USC is still technically alive in the Playoff chase, so long as you ignore the evidence the Trojans have put on the field over eight games to date. Something even more on the table? 7-5. Lincoln Riley's team has three top-10 opponents in its final four games.
4. No. 20 Northwestern at Oregon (3:30 p.m. ET, Peacock): This is Chip Kelly's fifth trip to Eugene in visiting colors, so that's not the notable aspect of this game. No, the notable thing here is that preseason No. 2 Oregon is out of the Playoff hunt while preseason No. 87 (approximate) Northwestern is firmly in it.