Remember before the Wisconsin/Iowa game earlier this season, when an interesting statistic was being thrown around? Wisconsin has never beaten a Hawkeyes team that finished with more than 7 wins in that season. The thought at the time was that Iowa would surely win more than seven games this year, already being at five wins with Minnesota, Indiana, and Northwestern still left on the schedule. So when Wisconsin left Kinnick Stadium with the close-shave victory, the Badgers had assumed that statistic was a thing of the past.

Fast forward to the end of the Big Ten season, and Iowa is at (you guessed it) seven wins. They did destroy Michigan State (this opened up the Rose Bowl to Wisconsin, for which the Badgers are forever grateful), but lost at Northwestern, home vs. Ohio State, at Minnesota!?!?!?, and for all intents and purposes lost to Indiana, though that one counts in the victory column.

What can we take away from this? That when Wisconsin defeats Iowa, Iowa's season goes to die. Iowa doesn't play Wisconsin in 2011 and 2012, so Bucky has no shot at running Herky's season into the ground until 2013. The Hawkeyes could still get to eight wins this year, but they caught a pretty tough bowl opponent in Missouri. And star wide receiver Derrell Johnson-Koulianos is in trouble for having a stash of drugs in his house, so it's safe to say we won't see him in a Hawkeyes uniform for the bowl game. Things certainly have gone in completely different directions for these two football programs over the past six weeks. I think we need a cool name for this curse, so feel free to post some naming suggestions.