While conference realignment has become prevalent in today’s world of college football, there are still the classic rivalries, with the Wisconsin Badgers playing the Minnesota Gophers and Iowa Hawkeyes yearly.
And with conference rivalries and regular showdowns come villain stories that have plagued the minds of fans for years after. Just look back at the 2014 and 2015 Final Fours, where Kentucky and Duke killed Wisconsin’s chance for its second college basketball championship in history.
ESPN compiled
a list of every college football team’s arch-nemesis, with some being very recent and some being decades ago, while providing the story that made them the No. 1 enemy.
For Wisconsin, interestingly, they named former Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett as the school’s biggest villain.
“The undefeated Badgers advanced to the 2017 Big Ten championship game and were a win away from making the College Football Playoff,” ESPN’s Jake Trotter wrote. “Instead, six days after undergoing surgery on his right knee, Barrett threw for two touchdowns and ran for another in Ohio State’s 27-21 victory.
“The Badgers had to settle for the Orange Bowl, where they beat Miami 34-24. Wisconsin has reached double-digit victories only once since. Barrett also defeated the Badgers in 2016 with an overtime touchdown pass in a battle of top-10 teams.”
On the flip side, for the Minnesota Gophers, Bret Bielema (more specifically, the Wisconsin version of him) was their biggest villain.
“While at Wisconsin, Bielema never lost to Minnesota, winning all seven meetings,” Trotter said. “Bielema’s tenure came in the middle of the Badgers’ 14-game winning streak in the rivalry, which kept Paul Bunyan’s Axe in Madison from 2004 to 2017.
“In 2010, up 25 points, Bielema called for a 2-point conversion, prompting an angry response from Minnesota coach Tim Brewster afterward. Since taking over at Illinois, Bielema has continued beating up on the Gophers, posting a 3-1 mark. The only loss came in 2024, when the Gophers rallied in the fourth quarter for the 25-17 win in Champaign.”
Do you agree with the two? Let us know in the comments below.
