OK, I'm going to take a controversial point of view here. (what a shock)
As this point, MN and WI do not have a "rivalry." I honestly don't think about the Axe, because I don't expect MN to win the damn thing, sorry to say. It's just embarrassing when WI brings the thing out every year, because you know it's just going back with them at the end of the day. I don't even want to see the bleepin' axe at this point. Maybe at some point in the future it will be a rivalry again - when the Gophers actually win a game every now and then.
Until then, the trophy I care most about is the Pig. Because that has been a competitive series in recent years. I would put the Chair 2nd - because again, the Gophers and Neb have had an interesting series in recent years. Next I would put the Jug for historical importance, then the Axe. The Governor's Victory bell is a joke. You can't just come up with a trophy and create a rivalry out of whole cloth. the game has to mean something first before the trophy can mean something.
Axe
Pig
Jug
No doubt for me. I don't care about the bell and refuse to recognize the stupid chair.
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The trophy that matters right now is the Axe. Officially it's the Slab of Bacon, but the criminals at Wisconsin "lost" it. I propose that whenever we do win the Axe back, that it gets "lost" soon thereafter and replaced with an Oar or a Paddle.
With apologies to Ruppert
1. Axe
2. Big Ten Title Trophy - https://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa/footb...tefully-understated-actually?urn=ncaaf,wp5660
3. Jug
4. Pig
5. Chair
6. Bell
The Little Brown Jug is the Holy Grail of Gopher football. The Pig is the coolest traveling trophy anywhere.
1. The Jug - it is the one we win the least since the beginning.
2. Floyd - The pig is special since it means we beat Iowa and their stupid pink locker room.
3. The Axe/Slab of Bacon - still the coolest of the trophies. We used to own this series but no more.
Note - SI rated the top ten rivalry trophies and all three of these were in the top 5! http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2677287-ranking-top-college-football-rivalry-game-trophies
4. Bits of Broken Chair
There's a bell? Governor's bell?
We need a trophy for Northwestern. The Report Card or Job offer or something. And why isn't there one with Illinois? A trophy of a horse with a broken leg and its rider on the ground from stepping in a Gopher hole or something.