Wisconsin and Purdue Move 2013 Game Earlier in Season
Wisconsin and Purdue have agreed to move their 2013 game up to the 4th week of the season (the traditional, "every Big 10 team plays a snacky cake" week), opening the Big 10 season a week earlier than the rest of the conference. A good move in what is typically an atrocious week of Big 10 football (though we play ND in the 4th week this year). It also allows Wisconsin to add a November game against BYU.
On another note, man, does the potential decline of Penn State make Wisconsin's 2013 schedule easy.
Aug. 31 Massachusetts
Sept. 7 Tennessee Tech
Sept. 14 at Arizona State
Sept. 21 Purdue
Sept. 28 at Ohio State
Oct. 5 Open
Oct. 12 Northwestern
Oct. 19 at Illinois
Oct. 26 Open
Nov. 2 at Iowa
Nov. 9 BYU
Nov. 16 Indiana
Nov. 23 at Minnesota
Nov. 30 Penn State
Obviously, they'll be underdogs at OSU and maybe Iowa, but they'll likely be at least touchdown favorites in every other game, missing Nebraska, MSU, and UM. This schedule here makes the need for a 9 game conference schedule plainly evident.
Announcement:
http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/54012/wisconsin-purdue-move-up-2013-game
I like that move. People will watch. It gets them more visibility on a national scale since they're actually relevant teams. At least IMO... I'll watch. Nice appetizer for our night game.
I mean, they're playing Open twice. INSANITY!
Per this, the student body is comprised of 250,000 undergraduates alone, so that has to be a rather raucous crowd at home anyway. I wonder if this particular OU gets tremendous home field advantage because of the time difference and having to get a hotel in Milton Keynes that would tolerate the eccentricities of Division I American football.
In all seriousness, however, if this schedule doesn't produce 10 or 11 wins for Wisconsin, that would be shocking.
WIFEDAY and WIFEDAY II: THE SPREE
Wow, that is a weak schedule. And since they'll lose to OSU, they still won't go to the Big Ten title game. They'll have a BCS game sewn up though, after going 11-1.
If they go 11-1 it's going to be impossible for them not to make the title game.
Well, that is if their one loss is to OSU it would be impossible.
He's also forgeting that they would have to play the conference game against Michigan, and thus lose out on playing for a National Championship.
It would not be impossible. If they go 11-1 and so does OSU, then OSU will go to the Big Ten title game and play (likely) another 1-loss team, hopefully us. The winner of that game will be 12-1, and will obviously go above Wisconsin.
Then, just about any other 1-loss team would get the nod over a Wisconsin team with a very weak schedule. There will be at least one other 1-or-fewer-loss team in the country.
Alabama did what they did because they were really good and beat a few other solid teams. Unless Wisconsin looks just sick in the games they play, they won't have much of a chance.
This schedule is for 2013, son.
BOOM! Roasted
You sound surprised that Wisconsin has an easy schedule. That's so cute.
Go back and look at any Rose Bowl season they had where they missed a major team in conference and beat non-conference foes of MAC teams and 1-AA teams. Their 98 team went to the Rose Bowl with the strength of schedule ranked #75.
Them scheduling BYU is a surprise, though. I was thinking they were going to start a rivalry with Western Kentucky since they play them so much.
Wisconsin's non-conference scheduling has been a joke for as long as I can remember. They seem afraid to face a challenge, particularly away from Camp-Randall. Every no and then they will play a non-conference opponent with a winning record, but that seems to be the exception to their wimped out approach to non-conference games, then they whine about their rankings.
Isn't that their strongest non-conf schedule since before Bielema was born?
Pretty much. Taking Wisconsin's beef machine linemen into Phoenix in September may be more difficult than it first appears. Seems like the Big 10 teams that play in Arizona early in the year always struggle with the heat. They probably won't be very good by Graham's second year but it is, at least, credible non-conference scheduling.
BYU seems like a classic Wisconsin non-conference opponent (see also: UNLV). A school you've heard of, that you remember having good teams, but one that's unlikely to prove any type of a challenge in Camp Randall (that said, it's a pretty good pull for a late season non-conference game, where you normally see teams like, um, Delaware State.)
The real problem is the conference schedule, where their very early game against OSU will likely determine the winner of the Woody conference.