The Wisconsin Badgers

[Principled Man]

Wisconsin 70

Northwestern 23

 

http://media.jsonline.com/images/600*479/mjs-uwgrid28-1-of-hoffman(2).jpg-uwgrid28(2).jpg

 

All-World defensive end J.J. Watt forces a fumble from Northwestern QB Evan Watkins in the Badgers' dominating victory. Watt personally caused three of Northwestern's seven turnovers, blocked an extra point, and wreaked havoc against yet another opponent's offensive line.

 

The Badgers earned a share of the Big Ten Championship (with Ohio State and Michigan State), and are expected to be awarded the honor of playing in the Rose Bowl, thanks to their higher ranking in the BCS Poll. Only an early loss at Michigan State kept the juggernaut Badgers from an undefeated season and a legitimate chance at playing for the National Championship.

 

2010 Wisconsin Badgers 11-1 (7-1 conference)

 

Sat, Sept 4 @ UNLV W 41-21

Sat, Sept 11 vs San Jose State W 27-14

Sat, Sept 18 vs Arizona State W 20-19

Sat, Sept 25 vs Austin Peay W 70-3

Sat, Oct 2 @ #24 Michigan State L 34-24

Sat, Oct 9 vs Minnesota W 41-23

Sat, Oct 16 vs #1 Ohio State W 31-18

Sat, Oct 23 @ #15 Iowa W 31-30

Sat, Nov 6 @ Purdue W 34-13

Sat, Nov 13 vs Indiana W 83-20

Sat, Nov 20 @ Michigan W 48-28

Sat, Nov 27 vs Northwestern W 70-23

 

GO BUCKY GO!!

 

http://d.yimg.com/a/p/sp/ap/f5/fullj.3d46a5438f4c26f9b06f0d7c4835c806/ap-21e851b682f4498186a03ea18b936d71.jpg

Edited November 28, 2010 by Workaholic Man

[blackhawkrush]

Besides the crazy voting (what is this, figure skating?) the other thing in College Football that kills me is that you can get defeated once all year and you're done as far as winning the Championship.

[Principled Man]

QUOTE (blackhawkrush @ Nov 27 2010, 08:17 PM)

Besides the crazy voting (what is this, figure skating?) the other thing in College Football that kills me is that you can get defeated once all year and you're done as far as winning the Championship.

We just have to keep the faith. A playoff system will be installed.....eventually. IMO, it's a done deal. The Big Bowl Games have already evolved to a point where they bring in non-traditional teams to play in them. The Rose Bowl was ALWAYS Big-Ten Champion v. Pac-Ten Champion. Not anymore! The BCS "system" has taken care of that tradition.

 

A 6-Team, NFL-type playoff format would work just fine.

 

And I would put the Badgers against ANY team this year....ANY of 'em.

[blackhawkrush]

[laughedatbytime]

[Huge Ackman]

[Principled Man]

QUOTE (Huge Ackman @ Nov 27 2010, 11:38 PM)

How does a six team play-off define a champion any better than the current BCS calculations?

People - not computers - should determine who is the National Champion. When I say "people", I mean the players on the field.

 

I would argue that a playoff system, be it 6-team or 8-team, would silence all human arguments regarding who is #1. The NCAA bureaucrats could create a thousand different ranking calculation programs, but the real goal is establishing a human concensus regarding the National Champion.

 

The main problem is this: there is a big difference between a team being National Champion and being the "best team". In the NFL, the "best team" doesn't always win the Super Bowl. In NCAA Basketball, the "best team" doesn't always win the Tournament. If the alleged "best team" gets beat in the early rounds, they are told, "Too bad! You should have played better!" The same should apply to NCAA football.

 

The two main polls (AP and Coaches) might be used to determine the six or eight highest rated teams. That would give the "best teams" equal opportunity to prove themselves. If the #1 ranked team loses in the first round, well, TOO BAD!! Guess they're not really #1!! They have no right to complain, because they had their chance to prove themselves.

 

 

[Huge Ackman]

[laughedatbytime]

[lerxt1990]

QUOTE (Workaholic Man @ Nov 28 2010, 12:06 AM)

The two main polls (AP and Coaches) might be used to determine the six or eight highest rated teams. That would give the "best teams" equal opportunity to prove themselves. If the #1 ranked team loses in the first round, well, TOO BAD!! Guess they're not really #1!! They have no right to complain, because they had their chance to prove themselves.

[Huge Ackman]

QUOTE (lerxt1990 @ Nov 28 2010, 10:07 AM)

QUOTE (Workaholic Man @ Nov 28 2010, 12:06 AM) The two main polls (AP and Coaches) might be used to determine the six or eight highest rated teams.  That would give the "best teams" equal opportunity to prove themselves.  If the #1 ranked team loses in the first round, well, TOO BAD!!  Guess they're not really #1!!  They have no right to complain, because they had their chance to prove themselves. That's effectively how it works now. Teams must win in order to be considered tops in the nation. If they lose a game, they drop in the standings which might mean their opportunity to play in a championship contest is diminished or eliminated. The regular season serves as the play-off and the polls currently used by the BCS do exactly as you've suggested, except that it's limited to the two top teams at the end of the year...a one game play-off, if you will. Not ideal, but it is the reality of the money machine that is big-time college football.   My point is not that the ideal of a competitive method of determining a champion is somehow unreasonable in its ideal form, it just isn't plausible at this time and I don't think it will ever be. As I mentioned earlier, the motivation for the decision makers is not about crowning a worthy champion but about generating money. That's it, pure and simple and as greedy as it seems. I don't disagree with the sentiment just with the hope that is might somehow actually happen. That, I don't think is possible.   Do you really think that appointing teams to participate in a play-off is going to placate the masses any more than the existing system? You suggest 6 or 8 teams be decided by polls. What about the 7th or 9th team down? Or the 8th or 10th? How do you answer when they scream that they were better than the 6th or 8th team but just had one bad weekend that adversely affected their end of season ranking? Hell, even 64 teams isn't enough to make the basketball world happy these days. Have you heard that they're talking about expanding to 92 teams? This from Wikipedia about the 2011 NCAA Tournament, "For the first time, a total of 68 teams will enter the tournament.[1] Thirty of the thirty-one automatic bids teams will be given to the program that wins their conference tournament. The remaining automatic bid will go to the Ivy League regular season champion since they do not hold a conference tournament. The remaining 37 teams will be granted "at-large" bids, which are extended by the NCAA Selection Committee. The Selection Committee will rank the entire field from 1 to 68, then split them into 17 teams to create four regionals. The final four at-large teams and the final four automatic qualifiers will play in a "First Four".[2] The four winners of those games advance to the main draw of the tournament to play a higher seed. Two of the 16th and 17th seeds will play against each other in a pair of First Four games, with the winners will play a #1 seed; the last four at-large teams playing in the other two First Four round games will have the winner to likely face either a #4 or #5 seed."   It's a never ending battle of bitching and whining, and against a football system that has absolutely NO desire to do the right thing by the game, its players or its fans...they answer to $$$ and nothing else. Basketball has figured out how to create a competitive system of determining a champ that generates massive amounts of money but so far football has not. Do you think expanding the NCAA Basketball Tournament to a greater number of teams is about anything other than revenue? The BCS system is college football's attempt to keep the masses happy enough to keep spending money on the games, the merch and TV viewing. As long as we keep doing that, a play-off system will never be implemented.   If somebody can suggest a play-off system that will generate as much revenue (or more!) as the current system without costing a ton of money to implement, you can bet it would happen in an instant. Until then, I say don't count on a play-off system in our life-time.

[laughedatbytime]

Looks like it's all but official, the Badgers have the automatic bid from the Big Ten. Final results won't be out till next week but since there are no games that directly affect the ratings the positions shouldn't change.

 

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/s...in-bcs-tiebreak

[liquidcrystalcompass]

[liquidcrystalcompass]

[Principled Man]

QUOTE (liquidcrystalcompass @ Dec 3 2010, 07:46 PM)

If TCU can get a few early scores, then the game is in their control.  If the game is close throughout, then Wisconsin has a HUGE advantage.  I love the power running game but the lack of a good passing game makes it hard for a team to come back from a deficit.

You may not have been paying attention to the Badgers QB, Scott Tolzien, and his receivers. The Badgers average 250 yards rushing per game, but they also throw for 191 yards per game - a very balanced attack.

 

Tolzien has no trouble taking over a game with his accurate and clutch passing. Stud TE Lance Kendricks is virtually unstoppable, and WR Nick Toon plays just like his old man, Al Toon, a former Badger great. Tolzien is the best QB the Badgers have had in a very long time.

 

74.3 completion %

191 yards per game

16 TD's, 6 INT's

 

[laughedatbytime]

I'm sure you guys follow it much closer than I do but I really don't see how anyone can be really sure about what would happen in a TCU-Wisconsin matchup. There's little overlap in the schedules and even a difficulty in using common opponents to make judgments about the relative strengths of the two teams. Sagarin's pure points ratings (which are usually pretty good) would have TCU by about 8 on a neutral field, but that just doesn't seem right.

 

I don't bet on football, but even if I did, I wouldn't know enough to have any sense about how a game between these teams would turn out. It will be an interesting test to see if/how TCU can stand against the best from a power conference.

[Principled Man]

I haven't seen TCU at all this year, so I can't comment on them. They score thru the air more than the Badgers do. They've scored 67 offensive TD's to Wisconsin's 63....so one could call it a toss up.

 

The Badgers' defense is solid, but not perfect. J.J. Watt is a monster D-end, and they have some good D-backs. Blocking Watt will be the Frogs' #1 priority. He can take over a game......

 

 

[Huge Ackman]

[Weakly Criminal]

Let's see, a badger vs. a horned toad... hmmm.

 

The badger is obviously much larger and stronger, and how TCU copes with W's HUGE O line will be interesting to watch. But the horned toad can spit toxic blood from it's eye, so a couple of well aimed strikes could make the differance. A blinded badger can't do much.

 

This is the #1 bowl game on my calander. I can't wait to see how it plays out.

[Fordgalaxy]

There is too much money in bowl games for the NCAA to just walk away from. This year there are 35 bowl games and the NCAA will get a cut of every single one of them. If they went to a playoff system (like every other college sport) that would eliminate most of the bowl eligible teams.

 

I think a playoff of the top 8 teams after the bowl games would be sufficient to determine the real champion. They could do it in 3 Saturdays.

[Huge Ackman]

QUOTE (Huge Ackman @ Dec 5 2010, 07:04 PM)

All that aside, the Badgers are going to The Rose Bowl!!!

Yeeah!!!

http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/rose.jpg

Rose Bowl Game tickets arrived today...can't hardly wait!

 

http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z33/bfwgjma/Bucky%20Bikes%20the%20Bay%20Sept%2019%202009/IMG_5244.jpg

http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z33/bfwgjma/Bucky%20Bikes%20the%20Bay%20Sept%2019%202009/IMG_5247.jpg

[laughedatbytime]

I'm a little surprised but TCU has been installed as an early 3 pt favorite. I think I'd take the Badgers if forced to bet, but as I mentioned earlier, I don't have a good sense about this game because of the lack of common opponents.