How is traveling to Oregon State and Arizona State in back to back years horrific?
Nevermind, LSU next year in Houston and Alabama in 2015 in Dallas.
THis is not a recent problem for Wisconsin, they have been doing this for at least 20 years. THey have been ripped continuely in the national press for their non-conference scheduling. I will also admit that I was also not a fan of our scheduling during Mason years where it seemed like we played the MAC All-Stars and a D1AA program. I was also not a fan of dropping UNC from the schedule, but it is not as if we could see that one coming. It really came out of the blue.
Schools have tried to schedule with Wisconsin from Notre Dame, Texas and Florida State to name a few; but they traditionally played it safe in the pre-playoff era. Is it a good strategy, maybe. You nail most if not all guaranteed wins; but if you look back their scheduling really suffered. It all goes back to when they had Colorado scheduled when the Buffs when Bill McCartney was coach. They played a home at home and Colorado rolled them. The game was scheduled prior Richter showing up and they had them both national televised during prime time. Since then, they scaled back considerably. Most times it worked in their favor, but sometimes it bit them. They scheduled Oregon mid 90's before their Rose Bowl against Penn State and then they got hot under Harrington for the game in Eugene. They were invited to play Syracuse in the Kick Off Classic (money payout and extra game). Plus they scheduled Fresno State, that turned out to be the year they took off which I believe was either 99 or 00.
The BCS teams that they would schedule were programs that were having trouble at the time, West Virginia during late Nehlan which really turned into early Rich Rod who were not good early, North Carolina during the Bunning years. Washington State when Duba could not buy a game. You may even notice Boise State on their schedule once. It was the first year they made the jump in the only year Houston Nutt was their coach and they went 3-8. Hell, they bought out of games as well to change the location or not even going to the teams field choosing rather to play at home instead Fresno one year and completely buying out not to play at Washington State (granted Washington State was brutal).
Now that we have gotten into the playoff era, their scheduling has gotten considerably better with the Neutral site games with LSU and the invite to JerryWorld against Alabama. Remember they did not schedule it, they were invited to play. They also scheduled Virginia Tech as well which is weird because they actually scheduled them when they were good.
Overall, there non conference scheduling has been bad. Even the Wisconsin press were ripping them for it.
This is just one example of what Scout said last year of their non-conference scheduling to show the thought process.
Wisconsin
Non-conference games with Northern Iowa, at Oregon State, Utah State and UTEP for a team that has played in the Rose Bowl the last two years? Props to Wisconsin for scheduling a BCS team (Oregon State) but the Beavers went 3-9 last year. Sure, they may be better this year but the bottom line is that this schedule isn't very challenging.
