Minnesota-Wisconsin border rivalry heavily tilted in one direction these days

Current head-counting has the Minnesota population at 5.7 million and Wisconsin at 5.9 million. The major difference is that 3.65 million of Minnesotans are concentrated in the Twin Cities metro area. The Milwaukee metro is 1.58 million and Madison, located 80 miles west, is 670,000.

Wisconsin's larger population is fed by more mid-sized cities than in Minnesota, including Green Bay, home to an NFL franchise with a metro area population of 325,000.

Tom Oates, the now-retired, long-time columnist for Madison's Wisconsin State Journal, said: "I was asked frequently in press boxes, 'How can Green Bay support a football team?' Those people don't understand how it works in the Midwest, and for sure, in Wisconsin.

"The Packers aren't Green Bay's team. They are Wisconsin's team.

"There are no divided loyalties in Wisconsin. Everyone is a Packers fan, everyone is a Brewers fan, everyone is a Bucks fan and everyone is a Badgers fan."

Oates paused and said: "Except Marquette in basketball. Marquette fans don't like the Badgers in basketball."

Much of Minnesota's rivalry with Wisconsin stems from similarities. Population (as cited). Lakes, woods, fishing and deer hunting. Starkly divided politics by urban and rural.

Twin Cities media outlets have thrived on claiming "hate" for Wisconsin teams and their fans, but they are basically us — with a few more 16-stool taverns in the small towns.

The Minnesotans embracing that hate are having a very tough 21st century. And the competition taking place around pandemic outbreaks in 2021 has been toughest of all.

Consider the period from July 20 to July 27:

On the first of those Tuesdays, Giannis Antetokounmpo led the Bucks to their first NBA title in 50 years. On the second of those Tuesdays, Aaron Rodgers showed up in Packers camp after an offseason drama in which management refused to trade him.

In between these two happenings, the Brewers were winning two out of three in a home series vs. the White Sox. The attendance for the series was 111,287, and the Brewers' lead was seven games in the National League Central.

Here in Minnesota, the lowly Timberwolves were preparing to sit out the NBA draft after a trade that ridded them of Andrew Wiggins and brought in No-D-Lo Russell, the Vikings were about to discover that their quarterback's plan to avoid another COVID quarantine was to shield himself with Plexiglas, and the Twins finished July last in the woeful AL Central, 17 games behind the White Sox.

What was left was for the Minnesota's haters of Wisconsin sports entities was to gaze eastward and say, "This interstate rivalry has gone from bad to worse."

Minnesota and Wisconsin started playing football in 1890. The only year missed was 1906, when 19 deaths in college football the previous season had caused a national campaign to ban the activity. Wisconsin's response was to play a five-game schedule that did not include its "fiercest" rivals: Minnesota, Michigan and the University of Chicago.

The game was almost missed again last season because of the pandemic. The Gophers bowed out of two late games because of COVID issues, then agreed with the Big Ten to play at Wisconsin in mid-December.

A subpar Gophers team lost to Paul Chryst's worst Badgers team 20-17. The Badgers are 16-1 in Paul Bunyan's Axe games since 2004. There are other huge discrepancies, but leave it at this: 0-7 in Axe games vs. Bret Bielema.

In men's basketball, coach Greg Gard had a group of seven seniors that primarily disliked him. And they beat the Gophers 71-59, putting Richard Pitino at 3-11 vs. Wisconsin and helping him to get fired after eight seasons.

Worst of all, there's volleyball, where Hugh McCutcheon has the best program on the Twin Cities campus. The Badgers played for the national title in last spring's delayed season. Now, they enter the fall season rated No. 2 in the nation, with the Gophers at No. 7.

Wisconsin has a two-time NBA MVP in Antetokounmpo, said by Oates and other observers to be an all-time great guy. It has a three-time NFL MVP (including 2020) in Rodgers, an all-time great quarterback. And it has a Brewers team that's 25 games over .500 with the 2018 MVP, Christian Yelich, still waiting to get warm.

Plus, the Brewers now have Eduardo Escobar, "Effervescent Eddie," who's supposed to be our guy.

Face it, alleged haters of our Wisconsin rivals. They own us.