NCAA Week 9

[Bucksfans1and2]

As long as we take care of business we'll be up at least one spot next week.

Ladies and Gentleman, your game of the week

Utah vs. TCU

[Bernman]

As long as we take care of business we'll be up at least one spot next week.

Ladies and Gentleman, your game of the week

Utah vs. TCU

We'd be rooting for Utah, because TCU started higher in the polls, and there's at least a slim realistic shot that the Utes would lose on the road against Notre Dame.

However, that's hardly my game of the week, because making the national championship game is a serious long shot regardless of what happens.

My primary eyes are still on winning the conference and making a BCS game. Therefore, OSU v. PSU is my game of the week.

[chuckleslove]

Badgers come in at 9th in the BCS with .6740, OSU was 11th at .614 decent amount of distance ahead of them for now, I think MSU was 15th or 16th.

[Kerb Hohl]

Great news for us.

We essentially control our own Big 10 destiny:

Only 2 ways I see us not taking the conference given 11-1 record.

1. The OSU or Iowa winner loses a different game leaving us in a tie solely with MSU.
2. OSU's BCS rating takes a major late spike and they win a 3-way tie with us and MSU.

[chuckleslove]

A refresher on the tie breaking procedures:

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/i ... te-week-10

[LUKE23]

A refresher on the tie breaking procedures:

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/i ... te-week-10

So if I'm reading right, if MSU, Wisco, and OSU all finish 11-1, it goes to:

If all three teams have the same overall record, the team ranked highest in the final BCS standings earns the berth

[chuckleslove]

Yep which could be problematic for us. OSU has a better chance of improving their BCS standing than we do since they have better opponents down the road. We do currently hold a lead over them and its a decent lead so I'll take that but if we both win out it will be very very close as to who finishes with a higher BCS standing. I think we are probably far enough ahead of MSU after that blowout loss to maintain a lead over them if we win out.

[trwi7]

A refresher on the tie breaking procedures:

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/i ... te-week-10

So if I'm reading right, if MSU, Wisco, and OSU all finish 11-1, it goes to:

If all three teams have the same overall record, the team ranked highest in the final BCS standings earns the berth

Yeah, this really blows.

If Iowa beats Ohio State, then if Iowa, Michigan State and Wisconsin tie, Iowa is eliminated because they would all have 7-1 conference records but Iowa would have lost to Arizona giving them a 10-2 record instead of 11-1 like Michigan State and Wisconsin have. Then it goes to a two team tiebreaker which we would lose with Michigan State.

But if Ohio State beats Iowa and Michigan State and Wisconsin wins out the tiebreaker would be highest in the BCS because none of the other tiebreakers matter.

So how much of a lead do we really have over OSU in the Big Ten? It's pretty much the same number that is between us and #5 Utah, so I can't imagine them being able to jump over us, but I don't really know. They have Penn State, Iowa and Michigan remaining on their schedule. We have Purdue, Indiana, Michigan and Northwestern so they have the more difficult schedule. The question is is their schedule over our schedule enough to have them jump us?

[chuckleslove]

I think if we end up all tied its going to be very close if OSU can surpass our BCS ranking, I don't think MSU can pass us because they took quite the hit due to the manner in which they lost. Sucks but we are pretty damn close to controlling our own destiny and we can certainly help ourselves with a couple of blowout wins, biggest thing is we can't choke it away at Michigan that is by far our biggest hurdle left.

[LUKE23]

Hopefully MSU just loses again (which I could see happening) then we go regardless. We'd have the tiebreaker on every other team.

[Kerb Hohl]

The good thing as at the very least we control our own destiny for a BCS game berth. That is for certain. MSU is done and can only hope for a that Iowa tiebreaking scenario to win the conference, in which case, we still are #2.

[chuckleslove]

The good thing as at the very least we control our own destiny for a BCS game berth. That is for certain. MSU is done and can only hope for a that Iowa tiebreaking scenario to win the conference, in which case, we still are #2.

Thats not necessarily true. Its mostly true but in some crazy world we could end up finished with MSU and OSU all with the same record and then end up in a situation where the computers and/or humans moved MSU and OSU above us and thus we would have a lower BCS ranking and those 2 get a BCS bowl while we get stuck in the Capitol One bowl. It isn't very likely but its possible.

[trwi7]

MSU is not moving above us if we win out. We're 8 or 9 higher than them in the human polls and 5 higher than them in the BCS.

They are not going to move ahead of us with games against Minnesota, Purdue and Penn State left. If we take care of our own business, we should at the very least get an at large BCS berth.

[chuckleslove]

Yes we should, but this BCS system is a sham and it wouldn't be the first time I saw a team screwed over by it.

That being said the human polls are very high on us, all of the ESPN "experts" have ranked us very highly with the highest being Mark May putting us at #4 in his personal poll.

I don't see any way MSU passes us without us losing but crazier things have happened in this **** up system.

[trwi7]

Mark Anderson is a **** idiot. We beat Ohio State and last week he has the Badgers ranked 13th and Ohio State 6th. What's even worse is this week he keeps Ohio State at 6th and drops us to 16th! How the **** do we drop 3 spots without playing?