Does Wisconsin's ASU Loss Continue to Plague Big 10 Team Rankings?

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cemba99

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Perhaps I am exaggerating a bit, but it seems to me that the loss by Wisconsin to ASU (admittedly via a horrible call) continues to haunt the entire Big 10 rankings-wise. The logic goes that as the national media saw the "fourth best" team in the PAC12 beat the "second best" team in the Big Ten, then the Big Ten must really be bad (since PAC12 was not considered "elite"). Hence everyone in the conference gets pushed down a notch or two.

Yes, MSU's loss to Notre Dame did not help matters much nor did Nebraska's second half melt-down against UCLA. But, fair or not, it was the Wisconsin loss that gave the Big Ten its "no-respect" status - the other losses just confirmed the notion.

On the other hand, no one seems to be knocking the ACC, even though it looks like Duke will end up playing FSU in the conference championship game.
 

The MSU loss to Notre Dame is more damaging, it's preventing the b1G from having another top ten team right now.

Wisky is the third best team, at best, in arguably the 4th one even 5th strongest conference in the country. The result of that game doesn't have much to do with how the Big Ten is perceived right now.

Michigan and Nebraska sucking, and Northwestern being a horrendous 0-6 in conference play after being ranked around the top 15 is what's killing the Big Ten this year.

The conference is not good, plain and simple. The Gophers are hardly an 8-2 team right now but they're playing disciplined football and taking advantage of the teams on their schedule being not as goos as they were expected to be. Iowa is probably the only BT team they've played that was better than people expected them to be. Every other team is having a considerably worse season than was anticipated.
 

The Big Ten just had a godawful Non-Conference Season. Posted this in an earlier thread.

he Non-Conference schedule: Losses to (take a deep breath) Missouri, Navy, Washington, Notre Dame(twice), UCLA, Cincinnati, NIU (TWICE), UCF and yeah the Badgers loss to Arizona State. No tears shed, very badly handled by Officials, but they could have just spiked the damn ball.

The big wins? Michigan got one against Notre Dame and the Illini beat Cincy. Victories over Cal and Syracuse don't really look that good now do they? Come to think of it beating the Irish and Bearcats doesn't sound that big either.
 

I think Iceland hit it right on the head. A lot of bad losses, no really good out of conference wins. Also, I am getting really tired of hearing about the officiating in the ASU game. Plenty of teams have had to deal with bad calls over the course of the season. They are (unfortunately) part of the game, and everyone has been victimized by a few big ones this year. We had a huge touchdown taken off the board by a horrible call against NW. Also, on one of the plays to get Wisconsin into field goal range, the Wisco player arguably stepped on the sideline. You could argue they shouldn't have been there in the first place. Good teams have excuses for why they should have won games, great teams win 'em anyway.
 

I, for one, am sick of hearing about how Wisconsin should be 9-1. That's fine if the talking heads on the BTN/ESPN, etc., want to say that, but if we're going to play the shoulda' coulda' woulda' game (which we shouldn't) then MSU should be 10-0. They got completely hosed on 2 pass interference calls vs. Notre Dame, including one in/near the endzone on Notre Dame's game-winning drive. So if we're going to play that game -- Wisconsin should be 9-1 -- then the same argument could be made Sparty should be 10-0 and in the hunt for an undefeated season.

Again, I think it's stupid to play that game, but I'm tired of the BTN (especially Dave Revsine and Glen Mason) pimping that the Badgers should really be considered 9-1 instead of 8-2. Not the way it works, fellas'. A loss is a loss. YOU ARE WHAT YOUR RECORD SAYS YOU ARE.
 








Wisconsin is not the second best team in the Big 10. They are in second to Ohio State in their division.

The second best team right now is Michigan State who is still not getting any credit.
 

LakeGenevaBadger said:
So there won't be any "excuses" why you lost come Saturday? Got it!
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If we lose, I sure as crap won't blame officials, weather, injuries, or anything else. This is competitive sports, if we deserve the win, we will get it. If we don't, then we didn't deserve it.

Also, as Iceland pointed out, that leaves us at 8-2, exactly where we deserve to be at this point in the season.
 

Anybody that posts on another team's fansite is missing more than a few brain cells.
 

highwayman said:
Anybody that posts on another team's fansite is missing more than a few brain cells.
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You realize you're also insulting the Gopher fans that frequent Buckyville, BadgerBlitz, Badgermaniacs & Bucky's 5th Quarter forums.


Birthday March 2, 1959
East Bethel, Minnesota
 





LakeGenevaBadger said:
You realize you're also insulting the Gopher fans that frequent Buckyville, BadgerBlitz, Badgermaniacs & Bucky's 5th Quarter forums.
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I wasn't the one who posted it, but I agree, anybody that posts on another team's fansite is missing more than a few brain cells, including Gopher fans who go to those boards. It's pretty obvious that highwayman was including those fans which only validates his statement.

P.S. Lake Geneva is a dump.
 



What was different in the other games where officials blew calls is that those teams still had a chance to overcome them. The crap call in the UW game literally ended the game, the Badgers got no shot to overcome the bad call. Plenty of games have bad calls (heck in that Badger game ASU got 3 points for a fg they missed) but very few end on obvious officiating blunders. It was not a judgement call where a case could be made that they got it right (IE pass interference vs MSU).

The refs whistled the ball dead (it was NOT a spike situation as so many seem to think. They were kneeling to center the ball for a FG.) and then ASU jumped on it as UW lined up to spike it. That is a textbook delay of game penalty on the D, a penalty that only exists to stop the D from laying on the ball to run the clock in the late game. There was never a question of it being a fumble, they blew it dead immediately after Stave kneeled. ASU knew they had nothing to lose, so they gambled and the refs gave it to them.

And it is definitely hurting the B1G's rep this year. With that W the B1G would have gone 3-1 vs the Pac-12 with two road wins out west. That would have shifted the assumption that the Pac-12 is the better conference this year. The MSU loss to ND hurts a lot too.
 

I think it is a few things lead to lack of respect.

1. MSU loss to ND.
2. Iowa losing to N. Illinois. The team that was destroyed by FSU last year. You can argue Iowa is a top 4 team in the B1G.
3. Non-conference schedule is terrible. Our non-conference partner is the MAC and they are teams full of guys that could not get B1G offers.

The only way to change is to get one team in the BCS and then win a bunch of head-to-head bowls.
 

bigdsrip said:
What was different in the other games ….blah, blah, blah, whine, whine...
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We don't CARE and neither does the rest of the country. The Badgers had 60 minutes to win the game and they let the Officials decide the game in the last minute because, as you're suggesting the where afraid the kicker couldn't hit the FG from the previous spot? Just another example of the Badgers having a very good team and a whole lot of "bleeping" fans.

Looking at your posts just confirms it.
 



I cheer for the Becky to lose in everything so if that hurts the conference so be it.
 

Ogee Oglethorpe said:
Wisky is the third best team, at best, in arguably the 4th one even 5th strongest conference in the country. The result of that game doesn't have much to do with how the Big Ten is perceived right now.
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HAHAHAHAHA you are so delusional. You think that, at best, we are 3rd in the conference? Come on. Who's the team that could push us to 4th? The team that's 14.5 point dogs to us, at home?

Don't think so. Sorry bud.
 




Some fans like to talk football with other fans, some don't. Why is it any different on a computer than in a bar or at a game? This is not brain surgery, it is football. It is supposed to be fun. This board is one of the most entertaining around.
 

ToddisGahd said:
The amount of coverage that the whole thing is STILL getting on ESPN and other networks suggests differently.

Sorry.
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You mean when they're trying to explain away the fact that you only played two ranked teams and lost to both of them? Yeah, still don't care Todd. Seriously, just don't give a damn.

You've got a very good team this year. Either the 2nd or 3rd best team in the Conference and probably one of the 20 best teams in the country. Last year they got to go to a Rose Bowl with the 3rd best record in the Division and the Sixth :eek: best record in the Conference. So this year you got a bad call at the end of a game because you were afraid that your kicker couldn't hit a gimme unless he was kicking it from dead center and you couldn't beat them in the previous 59 minutes plus.

Too bad, so sad, maybe it was just karma for last year's gift Rose Bowl.

You guys have had a very nice run for awhile now, way better than the Gophers. Against Minnesota you've won 10 in a row and you constantly say, like we're sure you're always telling Packers fans, that anything before 1993 is meaningless and anything before 1968 doesn't count. Packer fans should be proud of their two championships, history books be damned Badger-Style!

So here's the question, why are you so overtly sensitive anytime somebody here says….anything?
 

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