How to watch Wisconsin vs. Minnesota on TV or online, plus 3 things to know

When Wisconsin and Minnesota meet on Saturday in Minneapolis, there won’t be all that much on the line in terms of national ramifications. But the two teams will scrap and claw for Paul Bunyan’s Axe.

The 8-3 Badgers come into this game as slight favorites, and have rebounded from the tumultuous tenure of Gary Andersen under first-year head coach Paul Chryst. Minnesota, meanwhile, has had a less successful 2015, with former head coach Jerry Kill resigning due to health concerns in October and the Golden Gophers failing to win a game under interim-turned-actual head coach Tracy Claeys until last Saturday. And that win came against Illinois, which has played this season under its own interim head coach.

So the Badgers probably deserve their favorite status. But Minnesota is long overdue for a win in what has come to be called the Border Battle: Wisconsin has won every meeting between the teams since 2004, and is currently on the longest winning streak by either team in the history of the rivalry.

There’s no time like the present for the Gophers to get back on top.

TV: 3:30 p.m. ET, Big Ten Network

Radio: Wisconsin, Minnesota

Online streaming: BTN2GO

Spread: Wisconsin is favored by 2.5 points.

Make friends: Get to SB Nation’s team blog chats for this game at Bucky’s 5th Quarter (for Badgers fans) and The Daily Gopher (for Golden Gophers fans).

1. Rest in peace (in Madison), Slab of Bacon. While the Badgers and Gophers now compete for Paul Bunyan’s Axe, it wasn’t always that way. The original trophy awarded in the rivalry was the Slab of Bacon, a piece of wood with a football and a letter that doubled as an M and a W carved on it, with the word “bacon” emblazoned on it twice. Winners of the rivalry would, of course, bring home the Bacon.

But that trophy went missing after the 1943 game between the two teams, and was replaced by Paul Bunyan’s Axe in 1948 ... before mysteriously “appearing” in Wisconsin’s football facility in 1994. This in no way angers Minnesota fans, nope, because it’s not like the Gophers won the Slab almost four times more often than Wisconsin or deserved to have it after that 1943 game, or anything.

2. The longest-running rivalry in the nation. Both the recent lack of competitiveness in the rivalry and the relatively low profiles of both programs help make this fact obscure: Not only is Minnesota-Wisconsin the longest-running rivalry in the Football Bowl Subdivision, it’s the most-played one, too. The teams have faced off 124 times since 1890, and in every year since then other than 1906, when no game between the teams was held “by mutual consent.“

Minnesota holds a slim 59-57-8 advantage in the rivalry, and has never had a losing record in the series. The last time it was even tied? November 14, 1902, the day before an 11-0 Minnesota win gave the Gophers the edge that they have held to this day.

3. The game’s best running back is a Gopher. College football fans have grown accustomed to Wisconsin’s assembly line of great running backs this century, from Heisman Trophy winner Ron Dayne on down to former FBS touchdowns record-holder Melvin Gordon. But Minnesota has the most productive running back in this year’s battle for Paul Bunyan’s Axe: Freshman Shannon Brooks has run for only 636 yards, but has done so on just 99 carries. His 6.42 yards per carry is second in the Big Ten, and ahead of erstwhile Ohio State Heisman candidate Ezekiel Elliott’s 6.28 yards per carry.