WOW. The excuses that people come up with on the Gopher Hole are are just mind numbing. If you are actually arguing that a (3-5, 6-6) Gopher team is an equal team to a (5-3, 9-3), No. 22 ranked Badger team, who the Badgers manhandled in the opening big ten game of their brand spankin new-empty stadium you are absolutely DELUSIONAL. Why is it that you all just simply can't bring yourselves to acknowledge that UW has a great program?
You really think the Gophers would have beat Northern Illinois, Fresno State, or even Hawaii for that matter? I'll give you the Wofford victory, but that one is still a toss-up for the absolutely inept and clueless offense lead by the absolutely inept and clueless Fisch and Brewster.
What more do Bielema and the Badgers have to do to get some respect from Gopher fans? Just continue to beat your program like a drum for the majority of the past 20 years? You've proved that that won't change your mind, so what do they need to do?
QUOTE]
Okay, I finally had to speak up here. First off, I completely agree with you that there are some people who bag on Wisconsin without much merit. No doubt, Wisconsin has had some really good success in recent memory and some of the above-mentioned comments are just out of line.
But good grief, the perception of some Badger fans that the two programs are light years apart is just ridiculous. Are you really serious? Talk about the other end of the spectrum...
Is Wisconsin a better program than Minnesota right now? Absolutely. But these Badger fans who think there's a Grand Canyon between them are just amazing.
Head to head, the Gophers won the Axe in 2001, 2003, were a miraculous blocked punt for a TD for Wisky from winning in 2005, and a pair of FG victories for Wisconsin this year and last year (not to mention only beating MN by a TD in a year that MN was 1-11?).
And on top of that, to suggest that Wisky is some kind of elite program, that's just not being reasonable. Take this year for example; Wisconsin did about what any decent team would hope to do in any given season; they won the games they should have won (with the possible exception of getting dumped by Northwestern). Nothing more, nothing less. Conversely, they didn't win a single game that would have been an "upset" or a really great win.
Nothing wrong with that, not one bit. They had opportunities to win big games and lose bad games but for the most part, did not. By my definition, that's a good season and I would be happy with that.
On the flip side, Minnesota did almost the same thing. They lost a game to Illinois that they should have won, but did manage to beat Northwestern on the road, something the Badgers could not do.
Basically, with the same schedule as the Gophers (carrying over WI's loss to NU), the Badgers would have likely gone 7-5. Yes, I think Cal would have beaten the Badgers.
Some people forget the fine line between winning and losing sometimes. Wisconsin's done very well and should be proud of their recent history but to keep suggesting that MN's program is 3-4 tiers down is just plain ignorant.