Badgers Continue To Dominate

It is becoming a magical year for the Wisconsin Badger football team. After a slow, inconsistent start that led to some white-knuckling wins over UNLV and Arizona State and a terrible loss to Michigan State, this club has turned it on. It’s not every year that Wisconsin wins against the then-number one team in the country Ohio State and then follows that up with a convincing win on the road against a highly ranked Iowa squad. Then in the weeks that follow, they blow out Purdue, put 83 up against Indiana for their second 70-plus game of the season and then score 48 in a win at the Big House against Michigan.

The Badgers have been good the last two decades, but they always seem to stub their toe in the second half of the Big Ten season. This year, the toe stubbing happened early, and now they have convincingly become the best team in the Big Ten and arguably the best team in the nation. If we had a playoff, everyone would be talking about Wisconsin as a favorite to win a national championship.

Instead, we have the BCS system, and Wisconsin along with some other very good teams such as Stanford, Ohio State, Nebraska and Oklahoma State aren’t even considered in the mix because they lost a game. Wouldn’t it be something if the only teams we were considering in the NFL right now at two or three losses.

But it is not my point to complain about the BCS the rest of this blog. Instead, my question is regarding who do we cheer for along with the Badgers to help this invisible one-loss team out.

Well, it depends on what the ultimate goal is. Since, we are dealing with the BCS, a national championship is out of the question (although I’ll ponder it in just a bit). So what do we need for a Big Ten Championship and a Rose Bowl berth? First, the Red Machine needs to beat Northwestern on Friday. And if Brett and the boys could run up the score like they are accused of doing even though that’s what the NCAA requires you to do if you want to be considered good (sorry I’m complaining again), that would be great. Then they need one of two things. The easiest would be for Penn State to upset visiting Michigan State. Given, the Spartans have lost the last eight times they’ve been in Happy Valley, this could happen. But Penn State is down, and Sparty has been very lucky. The second scenario is to have Ohio State beat Michigan but still finish behind Wisconsin in the B(C)S rankings. Wisconsin currently leads OSU, but the Buckeyes should make a charge since their opponents this past week and this next week are better than the Badgers’. The computers are going to favor Ohio State in the end, so Wisconsin needs to continue piling up points and actually needs teams like Nebraska, Stanford and LSU to continue playing well so that the voters will feel the need to put these teams ahead of Ohio State. Fortunately, the two human polls continue to rank Wisconsin as the best one-loss team. LSU continues to stay ahead of Ohio State. And maybe Stanford can begin getting the consistent nod ahead of OSU.

It would be a real shame if Michigan State, Ohio State and Wisconsin finish in a 3-way tie and Ohio State ends up going to the Rose Bowl even though they didn’t beat MIchigan State or Wisconsin. Meanwhile, Bucky beat OSU and Sparty beat Wisconsin. They have both proven they can beat a big-time team in the conference while Ohio State has not.

So that is the most realistic dream: a Rose Bowl invite. Now if you are still a little insane and think the Badgers could still slide into a Top 2 spot in the BCS, here is what we need. Oregon needs to lose to either Arizona or Oregon State. Auburn needs to lose to either Alabama or South Carolina. Boise State needs to lose to Nevada. TCU is not going to lose. LSU needs to lose to Arkansas. Stanford needs to lose to Oregon State. Nebraska needs to lose the Big 12 title game. And Wisconsin needs to win the Big Ten with one of scenarios above. The Badgers have needed the aforementioned teams to lose one game the past three weeks now, and they all continue to win. So the odds are about as long as the Milwaukee Brewers winning the World Series next year. Okay, no odds are that long, but you get the idea.

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Badgers-Best 1-Loss Team in the Country

What an impressive two-week run for the Wisconsin Badgers. Back to back wins over then #1 Ohio State and then at a very good Iowa squad has me somewhat in shock. I don’t remember back to back wins in such impressive fashion since the Rose Bowl days of a decade ago.

The best part about both wins is that neither was a fluke. Against Ohio State, we absolutely dominated the Buckeyes. The Badgers ran the ball at will and controlled the line of scrimmage. And when Ohio State made a run in the second half, the Badgers responded by putting together a long scoring drive that eliminated any chance of Ohio State coming back to win.

Then against Iowa, the Badgers found themselves in a back and forth affair in which the Badgers could have folded at any time. The most impressive moment actually came after a Scott Tolzien interception early in the fourth quarter with Iowa up by 3. Then the defense rose to the occasion stopping the Hawkeyes and holding them to a field goal. The Badger offense then responded with a very impressive drive which included a fake punt for a first down and a 4th down conversion. The drive took seven of the last eight minutes off the clock and resulted in a game winning touchdown.

Now here we are with four games left in the season, and the Badgers are 7-1 and in my opinion are the best 1-loss team in the country. When the BCS rankings came out last Sunday unfortunately, the computers and voters did not completely agree. They rated both Alabama and Oklahoma slightly ahead of Wisconsin. I don’t think either team had a legitimate reason to rank higher than the Badgers. Oklahoma’s lone win over a ranked team came at home to Florida State. They lost to Missouri and barely squeaked out wins over Utah State, Air Force, Cincinnati and Texas. Alabama owns two wins over ranked teams, Arkansas and LSU. They lost to South Carolina.

Meanwhile, Wisconsin owns the most impressive wins of either team. They have the Ohio State and Iowa victories. And they played Michigan State tough in their loss. I could see an argument to put Alabama ahead of Wisconsin, but not Oklahoma or any other one-loss team. In my opinion, the Badgers should be #8 in the BCS, behind the seven undefeated teams.

Regardless, if the Badgers win out, they should make a BCS bowl. An 11-1 record out of the Big Ten should do it. Even if Michigan State goes undefeated and wins the conference, the Badgers should go as an at-large