We're finally ranked: No. 8

This is a disgrace.\nSaturday's game pits two nationally-ranked teams -- No. 19 Minnesota vs. No. 8 IU -- and is not being shown on television. Of course, Minnesota is ranked 19th in the ESPN Coaches' Poll, and IU is ranked 8th in the ESPN.com Bottom 10 (with first being the worst).\nThen again, there's a chance that you even forgot this game was being played this week, considering that you won't be able to watch it. Plus, there are a lot of other things going on that could have been distracting.\nMonday night featured multiple television appearances by former IU coach Cam Cameron, looking befuddled as ever as Drew Brees and the Chargers' offense put together a horrific performance.\nOr maybe you are focusing on Snoop Dogg's guest appearance on next week's episode of Playmakers. \nAnd football is the furthest thing from your mind when you have to plan for a good Halloween party. Halloween is my favorite holiday because you can be anything you want. You could dress in a humorous costume, such as Jesus from "The Big Lebowski." Or you could dress as something more frightening, like Gene Keady.\nMaybe the Hoosiers could show up to Saturday's party at the Metrodome as a competitive football team. At this point, I really don't care whether they win. I just want to see them give some team -- any team -- a run for its money.\nUnfortunately, Minnesota is one team that IU truly does not match up with. The Gophers are an offensive juggernaut, averaging a gaudy 39.8 points per game. And they can score in more than one way. Quarterback Asad-Abdul Khaliq has the highest passer rating in the nation to go along with 16 touchdowns. Running back Marion Barber III has 15 touchdowns, all on the ground.\nIU has scored 14 offensive touchdowns for the season. Matt LoVecchio has not thrown a touchdown pass since the Kentucky game. The defense just gave up 603 yards and 35 points to an offense that was ranked 114th in the nation. It's little wonder why Minnesota scheduled IU for Homecoming. (The Hoosiers have the distinction of being Homecoming opponents twice this year. That happened a lot to my high school team, which won eight games in four years.)\nThese are the types of random games that the Hoosiers specialize in winning, though. Two years ago they went to Wisconsin and beat the Badgers 63-32. The game wasn't on TV, so they weren't able to impress anyone across the country.\nLast time the Gophers played IU, they came into Memorial Stadium ranked as IU was attempting to rebound from a 58-0 loss to Michigan. IU pulled out a 51-43 victory. But they weren't able to impress anyone across the country because it wasn't on TV.\nBut in all reality, Minnesota serves as the perfect example of how to rebuild your football program. Before Glen Mason took over, the Golden Gophers had recorded seven consecutive losing seasons. By his third year, they were a winning team again. How did he turn it around?\nThat's easy. It's all in the scheduling. Minnesota regularly fills its non-conference schedule with teams like Louisiana-Monroe, Louisiana-Lafayette and Ohio University. You win those games, you get some confidence. You win some Big Ten games. You go to a bowl game. You win a bowl game, you get alumni support. You get alumni support, you get recruits.\nYou don't get that by playing at Washington and Oregon in consecutive seasons.\nPick to click: There has to be a bright spot for IU Saturday. I'm going to guess that it will come from kickoff returner Lance Bennett. Bennett had a couple of good looking returns against Ohio State last week, and there's a pretty good chance that he'll be returning quite a few kickoffs this week. Maybe he'll bring one all the way back.