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Throw out the emotional tie to the response to answer this: Wisconsin has been ranked all year between 22 and for a couple of weeks out of the polls. How is it they are being talked about in the sports media as if they are a top 10 team and how is it people still say they will most likely get an at large BSC bid? If they are supposedly so good, why are they not ranked much higher? Just want an explanation.
 

I think most voters just look at the loss column and don't think that deeply about the context of the losses. That, combined with the perceived weakness of the Big Ten puts WI in the 20's, even though they are probably one of the best 10-15 teams in the country.
 

gopherjay said:
Throw out the emotional tie to the response to answer this: Wisconsin has been ranked all year between 22 and for a couple of weeks out of the polls. How is it they are being talked about in the sports media as if they are a top 10 team and how is it people still say they will most likely get an at large BSC bid? If they are supposedly so good, why are they not ranked much higher? Just want an explanation.
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I think they have a chance to get a BCS bid but no way a sure thing. They have to reach at least #14 for that to even be an opportunity.
 

Given what you said and Wisky being huge favorites against their final two opponents who are "weak", how can they move up the polls?
 

The voters who live in the South hate them. And hate the B1G. And don't much care for the West coast.

Checkout the Sagarin ratings. They are easily one of the 10 best teams in the country. Vegas knows this; and unlike the media, they have to make an attempt to be objective.

The loss @ ASU deserves an * . And as far as anyone really knows, OSU is on par with Alabama.
 


The reason for the Skunks, and Michigan State for that matter, being underrated is conference perception nationally. There is no other reason for it. National perception leads to teams from the SEC, no matter how pedestrian their wins and schedule may actually be (South Carolina, Mizzou) being in the top 10 after a couple wins. And it leads to B1G teams having to scratch to get to the top 25, and struggle to rise from there. I'm not entirely sure the national perception is wrong. Our conference as a whole hasn't proven anyone wrong by winning higher level bowl games, or high level non-con games during the year. The B1G's top 4-5 teams need to start looking good come bowl season or this will never change. As for this season, I think as a conference we are underrated and will surprise some at the end of the year.
 

They didn't start the season ranked very highly. They have lost two games, and have beaten nobody that is ranked. Tough to jump teams in the rankings pecking order to get to a higher ranking than some of the other two loss teams when that is the case.
 

GophersInIowa said:
I think they have a chance to get a BCS bid but no way a sure thing. They have to reach at least #14 for that to even be an opportunity.
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Wisconsin has NO CHANCE of a BCS bid. None.

OSU gets one, and MSU maybe unless they stumble in the next two weeks. Wisconsin has to win the B1G, which is impossible unless OSU loses two.
 

fridge2012 said:
The reason for the Skunks, and Michigan State for that matter, being underrated is conference perception nationally. There is no other reason for it. National perception leads to teams from the SEC, no matter how pedestrian their wins and schedule may actually be (South Carolina, Mizzou) being in the top 10 after a couple wins. And it leads to B1G teams having to scratch to get to the top 25, and struggle to rise from there. I'm not entirely sure the national perception is wrong. Our conference as a whole hasn't proven anyone wrong by winning higher level bowl games, or high level non-con games during the year. The B1G's top 4-5 teams need to start looking good come bowl season or this will never change. As for this season, I think as a conference we are underrated and will surprise some at the end of the year.
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The AP hates the B1G. They dropped OSU in favor of Baylor. I'm guessing because OSU allowed too many points to Ill, but it isn't as if Bama looked great last night.

Florida State isn't going to lose again, assuming there aren't any charges filed. If Bama loses and Baylor goes undefeated, it'll be interesting to see how this unfolds. OSU was the pre-season #2 in both polls, are 10-0, yet they're now #3 and #4.
 



kellyleeks said:
The AP hates the B1G. They dropped OSU in favor of Baylor. I'm guessing because OSU allowed too many points to Ill, but it isn't as if Bama looked great last night.

Florida State isn't going to lose again, assuming there aren't any charges filed. If Bama loses and Baylor goes undefeated, it'll be interesting to see how this unfolds. OSU was the pre-season #2 in both polls, are 10-0, yet they're now #3 and #4.
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The Big Ten isn't a good football conference. Why can't some of us who live in Big Ten country accept this? All you have to do is look at where all the 1st round draft picks have come from for the last 5-10 years to see the dearth of talent.

Also, look at where the qbs are coming from. Wilson is good, Pryor is terrible. I cannot think of any other starting qb drafted in the last five years who came from the Big Ten. That trend isn't going to stop anytime soon.

I also wouldn't consider Wilson a true Big Ten recruit. He was an ACC guy first, and that counts for something.
 

fridge2012 said:
The reason for the Skunks, and Michigan State for that matter, being underrated is conference perception nationally. There is no other reason for it. National perception leads to teams from the SEC, no matter how pedestrian their wins and schedule may actually be (South Carolina, Mizzou) being in the top 10 after a couple wins. And it leads to B1G teams having to scratch to get to the top 25, and struggle to rise from there. I'm not entirely sure the national perception is wrong. Our conference as a whole hasn't proven anyone wrong by winning higher level bowl games, or high level non-con games during the year. The B1G's top 4-5 teams need to start looking good come bowl season or this will never change. As for this season, I think as a conference we are underrated and will surprise some at the end of the year.
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This is true. The SEC is the only conference with a 3 loss team in the polls. They actually have 2 (LSU and Ole Miss). I also find it interesting that as powerful as the SEC supposedly is, two mediocre Big 12 teams are now in the top echelon of teams in the SEC this year. In fact, A&M went 4-5 in their last year in the Big 12 and finished at 6-2 in their first SEC season. I also saw a tweet yesterday that criticized the Buckeyes for "only" beating Illinois 60-35 yet no one bats an eye when Alabama only beats Mississippi State 20-7.
 

highwayman said:
Wisconsin has NO CHANCE of a BCS bid. None.

OSU gets one, and MSU maybe unless they stumble in the next two weeks. Wisconsin has to win the B1G, which is impossible unless OSU loses two.
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Seemed to work out for Michigan in 2011.
 

You need to have good wins to get that high ranked. I just mentioned this on the other thread, but Wisconsin has not beaten anybody who is currently ranked in the AP poll. If they beat us, we likely won't ever get into the rankings in that poll, and will be knocked out of the coaches poll. It is tough to argue for a 2 loss team being top 10 or 15 when you have not beaten anybody who is top 25.
 




The three best teams in the B1G are OSU, Michigan St. and Wisconsin. IMO, there is a significant drop off after those three.

OSU is good, but they've only beat one team currently ranked in the Top 25: Wisconsin.

Wisconsin has been winning games big, but they have only beaten two teams with winnning records: BYU and Iowa. They lost to an Arizona St. team that got manhandled by Stanford and also lost to a mediocre Notre Dame team.

Michigan St., the 2nd or 3rd best team in the conference, lost to a mediocre Notre Dame team.

I don't think anyone knows how good OSU is and if they could compete with Bama and FSU. Wisconsin and MSU lost to some marginal-to-good teams in ASU and Notre Dame in the non-conference. If two of the top three teams lose to ASU and Notre Dame, it tells me the conference isn't that good, and the rankings are probably justified.
 

highwayman said:
Wisconsin has NO CHANCE of a BCS bid. None.

OSU gets one, and MSU maybe unless they stumble in the next two weeks. Wisconsin has to win the B1G, which is impossible unless OSU loses two.
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You cannot be serious. As long as they win their last two games, the Badgers have a pretty good shot at a BCS invite. When OSU and MSU play in Indy, the loser is likely to drop behind UW in the rankings. Wisc. is projected to be at 19 in tonight's BCS standing. At least six of the teams ahead of them play each other before the end of the season, likely moving UW to at least 16. A couple of upsets along the way, and they are at 14, and will have a good shot at a BCS bid. By no means are they a lock, but it is far from impossible.
 

maroonedinCA said:
Seemed to work out for Michigan in 2011.
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Completely different circumstances. Michigan was fluttering about the top 12 most of the 2011 season. Wisconsin isn't going to leapfrof a dozen teams. It's a math problem.
 

John Galt said:
The three best teams in the B1G are OSU, Michigan St. and Wisconsin. IMO, there is a significant drop off after those three.

OSU is good, but they've only beat one team currently ranked in the Top 25: Wisconsin.

Wisconsin has been winning games big, but they have only beaten two teams with winnning records: BYU and Iowa. They lost to an Arizona St. team that got manhandled by Stanford and also lost to a mediocre Notre Dame team.

Michigan St., the 2nd or 3rd best team in the conference, lost to a mediocre Notre Dame team.

I don't think anyone knows how good OSU is and if they could compete with Bama and FSU. Wisconsin and MSU lost to some marginal-to-good teams in ASU and Notre Dame in the non-conference. If two of the top three teams lose to ASU and Notre Dame, it tells me the conference isn't that good, and the rankings are probably justified.
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Wisconsin did not play ND. They lost to ASU on the botched referee call before they would have kicked the winning FG. ASU is 8-2 and rated 19th in the AP poll. Wisconsin lost to OSU but could have won if a Wisconsin DB had held onto an int that hit him in the numbers. IMO Wisconsin is very under rated; a great and massive OL, 2 top-tier RBs, Abredaris and a very solid defense led by Borland who will probably be a 2nd round pick in May. If Wisco had won those 2 games they would be a top 10 team. As much as it pains me from my seat in sec 210, they will make short work of the Gophers on Saturday.
 

gopherMD said:
Wisconsin did not play ND. They lost to ASU on the botched referee call before they would have kicked the winning FG. ASU is 8-2 and rated 19th in the AP poll. Wisconsin lost to OSU but could have won if a Wisconsin DB had held onto an int that hit him in the numbers. IMO Wisconsin is very under rated; a great and massive OL, 2 top-tier RBs, Abredaris and a very solid defense led by Borland who will probably be a 2nd round pick in May. If Wisco had won those 2 games they would be a top 10 team. As much as it pains me from my seat in sec 210, they will make short work of the Gophers on Saturday.
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He was saying ASU lost to a mediocre Notre Dame team.
 

The sentence is ambiguous but the gist of my post is how good the skunks are and that they should be rated higher.
 


Yes. Since we have gone to the electronic medical record prescription errors are down 15%!
 

gopherMD said:
Wisconsin did not play ND. They lost to ASU on the botched referee call before they would have kicked the winning FG. ASU is 8-2 and rated 19th in the AP poll. Wisconsin lost to OSU but could have won if a Wisconsin DB had held onto an int that hit him in the numbers. IMO Wisconsin is very under rated; a great and massive OL, 2 top-tier RBs, Abredaris and a very solid defense led by Borland who will probably be a 2nd round pick in May. If Wisco had won those 2 games they would be a top 10 team. As much as it pains me from my seat in sec 210, they will make short work of the Gophers on Saturday.
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That's pretty much it!
 


The BCS computer rankings don't take into account margin of victory, which does not make them very valuable in determining the relative strength of the teams. The polls are completely subjective and there is a clear bias against teams from the Big 10 in most years, but even more so this year. Whether that is right or wrong, is certainly open to debate.

When determining the relative strength of a team, the most objective measure is not just who wins and loses a game, but the score of the game. In looking at the rankings of one of the most respected people out there (Sagarin) that does numbers like that, the Badgers are 5th and ranked ahead of two teams that they narrowly lost to on the road. That tells a lot about what the objective numbers say about how good the Badgers are.

The Badgers lost to the number 6 team by 1 on the road and the number 8 team by 7 on the road.
The Badgers beat the number 21 team by 10 points at home. / The Gophers highest rated opponent to date is #41.
They beat the 41st ranked team by 19 on the road / The Gophers lost to that team by 16 at home
They beat the 62nd ranked team by 48 at home / The Gophers beat that team by 3 on the road.
They beat 66th ranked team by 29 at home / The Gophers beat that team by 3 on the road.

You can think the numbers are voodoo, don't mean a thing, whatever the case may be. However, a lot of money changes hands every week based on similar power numbers, so they certainly have some value.

All that being said, the numbers don't guarantee wins and losses and do not mean the Gophers can't win on Saturday. But they do explain how one team is a 14.5 point favorite on the road against another team with the same record.
 

cfb120 said:
You cannot be serious. As long as they win their last two games, the Badgers have a pretty good shot at a BCS invite. When OSU and MSU play in Indy, the loser is likely to drop behind UW in the rankings. Wisc. is projected to be at 19 in tonight's BCS standing. At least six of the teams ahead of them play each other before the end of the season, likely moving UW to at least 16. A couple of upsets along the way, and they are at 14, and will have a good shot at a BCS bid. By no means are they a lock, but it is far from impossible.
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They better hope OSU doesn't get in to the title game, I have a hard time seeing the Rose Bowl take them for a 4th time.

The best bet for 2 B1G teams in the BCS might be for MSU to beat OSU in the title game.
 

Lots of Sconnie delusion here.

They lost to ASU because their QB made a stupid play, and lost to OSU because they are nowhere in the same league. Sorry Budgies, no BCS for you.
 

Goldmember said:
The voters who live in the South hate them. And hate the B1G. And don't much care for the West coast.

Checkout the Sagarin ratings. They are easily one of the 10 best teams in the country. Vegas knows this; and unlike the media, they have to make an attempt to be objective.

The loss @ ASU deserves an * . And as far as anyone really knows, OSU is on par with Alabama.
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What this guy said.
 

highwayman said:
Completely different circumstances. Michigan was fluttering about the top 12 most of the 2011 season. Wisconsin isn't going to leapfrof a dozen teams. It's a math problem.
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They are ranked 19 in the latest BCS bowl. Don't they only have to finish in the top 14? I can see them passing UCLA, UCF, and Fresno if they lay a thumping on us this weekend, since we are now rated 25.
 

highwayman said:
Lots of Sconnie delusion here.

They lost to ASU because their QB made a stupid play, and lost to OSU because they are nowhere in the same league. Sorry Budgies, no BCS for you.
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Most important word above is: lost. Wisc. lost to ASU. Weird how people still act like Wisc. deserved to win that game. The ref's missed two major plays down the stretch-one for Wisc. and one against. Wisc. lost because they blew it.
 

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