The Minnesota Golden Gophers and Wisconsin Badgers will battle it out for Paul Bunyan's Axe on Black Friday next week and on Monday the kickoff time for that game was announced.

The Gophers and Badgers will face off with an 11:00 a.m. kickoff on Black Friday. The game will be televised nationally on CBS. It is one of two Black Friday games in the Big Ten as the Nebraska Cornhuskers will travel to Iowa City for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff that evening.

The Golden Gophers enter their penultimate this Saturday against Penn State with a 6-4 record including 4-3 in conference play. The Gophers are coming off their second bye week of the 2024 season while also looking to rebound from a 26-19 loss to the Rutgers Scarlet Knights two Saturdays ago in Piscataway.

Wisconsin enters this weekend with a 5-5 record including 3-4 in conference play after a third straight loss, this time a 16-13 defeat to the No. 1 Oregon Ducks. The Badgers also dropped recent games to then-No. .3 Penn State 28-13 and Iowa 42-10.

On Sunday, the Badgers fired offensive coordinator Phil Longo after less than two seasons. This season, the Badgers offense is averaging just 23.9 points per game which ranks 99th nationally.

The Badgers this weekend will take on a scuffling Nebraska Cornhuskers team that has lost four straight games after starting the season 5-1.

All-time, Wisconsin holds a one-game edge over Minnesota in the all-time series with 63 wins to the Gophers' 62 wins. There have also been eight times all-time in the series. While the Badgers have dominated much of the series since 200, the Gophers have won two of the last three matchups including a 2022 trip to Camp Randall Stadium in which they came away with a 23-16 victory.

============================

- Talk about it INSIDE GOPHER NATION.

- Follow us on Twitter: @MinnesotaRivals, @RivalsDylanCC

- SUBSCRIBE to Gophers Nation