Iowa football might have to work harder to hold on to the hardware from its trophy games this season.

With Big Ten rivals on the rise, the team’s trophy games are all set to be some of the most competitive in recent history. Because all of Iowa’s conference rivalry games — Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Nebraska — all fall in the last month of the regular season, the teams will be geared up for the most sought-after games in their seasons.

With an older roster and veteran quarterback in Nate Stanley commanding the offense, experience could only help Iowa in the games.

But the Hawkeyes face a tough schedule in October, and Iowa kicks off its the November schedule attempting to regain the Heartland Trophy from Wisconsin.

The Badgers will threaten the conference with their powerful rushing attack again. Center Tyler Biadasz highlights the offensive line as one of the most talented in his position in the country. Junior Jonathan Taylor is in the Heisman Trophy talks already after putting up 2,194 yards and 16 touchdowns a year ago.

ESPN’s Football Power Index gives Iowa a 53.7 percent chance of winning in Madison on Nov. 9. Much of that is because of the quarterback questions surrounding the Badgers’ offense at this point — Alex Hornibrook transferred to Florida State in the offseason, leaving four younger arms behind.

“We’re going to have one [quarterback] — we’re going to have four,” Paul Chryst joked at Big Ten media days. “I like our group … I like what they’ve done, not just this spring and summer but really kind of their development.”

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A week later, Minnesota visits Kinnick to try to take back Floyd of Rosedale for the first time since 2014. The Gophers’ competitiveness in the rivalry is rising in the third season of head coach P.J. Fleck — the power index projects Minnesota having a 37.2 percent chance to win, even in the tough Kinnick atmosphere.

Iowa firmly snared the victory over Minnesota last season, 48-31 in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Then-freshman quarterback Zack Annexstad threw 3 interceptions. But he and the rest of the young Gopher squad are a year older: Minnesota returns 17 starters this season.

“Went from the youngest team in America last year [to] now I think we’re the second youngest, so we moved up one spot possibly,” Fleck said. “That doesn’t mean you can’t win. We’re just young. And close to 80 percent of our team is only freshmen and sophomores, which is exciting.”

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That only leaves the Heroes Game. What is being projected by many as the pseudo-Big Ten West championship, it is sure to be competitive. But it will also be circled by the Huskers because of recent history; Iowa has won the game every season since 2014.

But this season could be different: The power index has Iowa with only a 48.6 percent chance of winning in Lincoln, one of only four games in which Iowa is the underdog, according to the index . Iowa edged Nebraska — which went 0-6 to start head coach Scott Frost’s first season — by a 3-point margin on Nov. 23. But Frost believes the team he fielded in the second half of last year was completely different from the one he fielded in the first, and that it will be a better predictor of what is to come.

“We were certainly further down the road at the end of the season than we were at the beginning,” he said. “Love our attitude in the locker room right now and the work ethic that they’ve been showing all offseason.”