In Minnesota, Much Ado About 55-0

There's little chance it was anything more than a copy-editing oversight, but by gosh, Minnesota's 2009 spring football media guide happened to leave something out of the record--namely, the 55-0 loss to Iowa which closed the regular season. Granted, there are many reasons the Gophers might like to forget that game, but I've learned never to assume evil when plain old "durrrr" will suffice.

Of course, this is the internet age we're talking about, so naturally the matter has attracted attention. Specifically, it caught the attention of the Cedar Rapids Gazette's Mike Hlas, who notes that he remembers the game quite clearly. Also naturally, Hlas's calling attention to the matter caught the attention of the Minneapolis Star Tribune's Michael Rand, who knows it's all in jest but decides to take a swipe at the perceived one-way nature of the Iowa-Minnesota rivalry.

Read both Hlas's and Rand's posts, and you come to one conclusion.

Watching two Midwesterners trying to trash-talk each other is like watching two statues trying to dance with each other. Both sides get in their digs, then the (semi-)anonymous commenters decide to take it to Level 2. Or, in some cases, Level 26.

It's clear that both Hlas and Rand recognize the Iowa game's omission is nothing more than a mere typo. As a native Iowan who lived in Minnesota for many years, though, I have to take issue with Rand's belief that people in Iowa take the border rivalry more seriously than people in Minnesota do. If that's the case, it sure doesn't explain why I usually heard the same three jokes within 30 seconds of telling somebody where I was from.

Still, I think I speak for all the college football world when I say "Thank goodness something like that didn't happen in the SEC." The lawsuits and Freedom of Information Act requests would've tied up the public sector for months, and it's possible there may even be a downside to that.

Just in case it wasn't a simple oversight, though, be careful, Gopher fans: The pig will squeal on you.