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Graham Couch, Assistant Editor
Nittany Lions? Wolverines? Anybody but the Badgers! |
If the Wisconsin Badgers represent the Big Ten in the Rose Bowl for the second consecutive year, it will be a shame for college football and for the Big Ten Conference.
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Photo courtesy of www.big10.org
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Last year, the Badgers wound up playing in Pasadena via a bizarre three-way tie with Ohio State and Michigan. Since they hadn’t played in the Rose Bowl as recently as the Wolverines and Buckeyes, Bucky Badger was handed the trip out west.
Prepare yourself Big Ten fans, it looks as if Wisconsin is going to waltz their way to another Big Ten title. Of course Penn State could still ruin it for the Badgers, if they get past Michigan and Michigan State; however, that will be tough.
The tragedy is that the Badgers don’t have to play the Nitney Lions—what a surprise. Now, no one will ever find out if the oversized-cheese-heads-in-red could hang with one of the nation’s top defenses. Even if they are as good as Penn State, they don’t belong in the Rose Bowl.
Consider this-with the exception of Minnesota, every other upper-echelon Big Ten team has played at least two tough non-conference opponents. For Penn State, it was Arizona, Miami and Pittsburgh. Ohio State faced that same Miami team and UCLA. Michigan State took on Oregon and Notre Dame. Michigan’s pre-conference schedule included Notre Dame and Syracuse. Even lowly Iowa scheduled perennial power Nebraska before Big Ten play. Who did Coach Alverez schedule for the Badgers? Murray State, Ball State and Cincinnati. Oh yeah, nothing like the football tradition of the Division 1-AA Racers of Murray State. This is not the Mid-American Conference (no disrespect to the MAC).
Why not face a team with some clout? Because no one punishes them for their mockery of college football and its rilvalries. Every year in November, when every other team has taken their lumps from Notre Dame or Nebraska, there sits Wisconsin near the top of the conference with a good overall record, proud of their wins over Norfolk State and Northern Illinois.
The Big Ten needs to take some action. The rule should be that every Big Ten team must schedule at least one opponent from one of the major conferences. It’s not the fault of the school if that team happens to have a down year, but at least they would have tried. What Wisconsin did this year was ridiculous. Did they expect Ball State to become a power house all of a sudden?
Badger fans respond by saying “We play the same schedule as everybody else in the conference.” Yes, they do. Yet, here is the problem. If two teams have identical conference records and they don’t face off head-to-head (as is the case this year with the Badgers and Nittany Lions), the squad with the better overall mark gets to go to the Rose Bowl.
Not only that, but often the Citrus and Outback Bowls (the Big Tens’ other two New Year’s Day bowl games) choose their teams based on overall record and how well their fans travel, regardless of how well teams do against each other. Since dairy people travel in packs, the Badgers are an attractive pick for bowl committees.
Justice will only be served if and when Wisconsin learns the hard lesson Kansas State did last season when the Wildcats were left out of the National Title game because of a weak schedule. Then we can here Coach Alverez explain to his players why he didn’t schedule any respectable opponents.
College football is about rivalries and big games between big programs. It’s not about taking the easiest possible route to a good bowl game. Somewhere along the way, they missed that point up in Badger country.
Questions? Comments?, E-mail Graham Couch at Ghcouch@hotmail.com or call the Chronicle sports desk at (312)344-7086.
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