Should we just go ahead and use ink instead of penciling in Wisconsin as the Big Ten’s West Division representative in the conference championship game this fall?
Wisconsin should be a pretty good team yet again in 2015, but aside from that, the Badgers might have the easiest road to a title game in power conference history. The B1G schedule makers must be enjoying free bratwurst and cheddar for life after putting this season’s Wisconsin slate together.
In 2015, Wisconsin will not face Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State or Penn State in the regular season. In other words, they’ve managed to somehow miss the four competent teams in the B1G East and probably four of the entire league’s top six or seven teams overall.
Check out this particularly cakewalk-y part of the schedule:
| Date | opponent | location |
|---|---|---|
| 10/17/15 | Purdue | Madison, WI |
| 10/24/15 | Illinois | Champaign IL |
| 10/31/15 | Rutgers | Madison, WI |
| 11/7/15 | Maryland | College Park, MD |
| 11/21/15 | Northwestern | Madison, WI |
That's some pretty assy scheduling, right there. Just look at that five-game run of games over six weeks: home vs. Purdue, at Illinois, home against Rutgers, at Maryland and vs. Northwestern at Camp Randall. Having a schedule like that could make Indiana bowl eligible. And these are games down the stretch run, so Wisconsin could conceivably be a Top 5 team in late November when the Badgers travel to Minnesota for the season finale.
It’s as if the schedule makers decided that the Badgers should get to take it easy the rest of the year after facing Alabama in the season-opening Advocare Texas Kickoff at Jerry World. But the crimes against FBS scheduling don’t stop with that late season run of the Big Ten’s group of teams hoping for a mid-December bowl game.
After opening with Alabama, Wisconsin will host Miami of Ohio, Troy and Hawai’i. That only seems comparable to Ohio State’s run of Virginia Tech, Hawai’i, Northern Illinois and Western Michigan. Alabama is better than Virginia Tech and both teams play Hawai'i, but Northern Illinois and Western Michigan were both bowl teams a year ago. Troy and Miami wouldn't have been bowl eligible even if you combined their wins.
Troy was 3-9 overall and 3-5 in the mighty Sun Belt Conference. Miami finished 2-10, beating only Mid-American Conference foes UMass and Kent State. Yuck.
The Buckeyes also at least face several teams with a pulse in conference play. The only games that appear at all likely to trouble the Badgers are an Oct. 3 home date with Iowa and road games at Nebraska (Oct. 10) and Minnesota (Nov. 28).
If the Badgers can navigate their two-game “gauntlet” of the fighting Ferentzes and Mike Riley’s Nebraska reboot, it’s an easy stroll to Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. I mean, sure, Minnesota has gotten better under Jerry Kill, but are we really comfortable at this point calling them a contender?
The Gophers, for their part, host Michigan and travel to Columbus this fall.
In addition to playing a cross-division game at Illinois in the so-called Illibuck rivalry, the Buckeyes host Penn State, Minnesota and Michigan State in 2015 and travel to Ann Arbor. They’ll also go to Indiana and Rutgers and host Maryland. Not necessarily a murderer’s row of a schedule either, but playing Michigan State and Michigan on back-to-back weekends isn’t anything to sneeze at.
Those two games will say a lot about who goes to Indianapolis from the B1G East and if that team is Ohio State, at least they’ll have earned it down the stretch. Wisconsin closes their regular season with a rivalry game against a team it hasn’t lost to since 2003, when Barry Alvarez was still head coach. The Badgers have beaten Minnesota 11 years in a row, by an average of 16 points.
So it looks like the Buckeyes already know who their opponent will be if they can repeat as B1G East champs. Let's hope the result is the same as last year.
