#3 Wisconsin Badgers

Last year I scoffed at the idea of Barry Alvarez hand picking his successor at Wisconsin. And then Brett Bielema not only went 12-1 with a nice bowl win over Arkansas (though how a big slow dumb Big Ten team beat a smart fast SEC team still remains a great mystery) but he also took advantage of the asinine new clock rule to run the clock out with out giving Penn State the ball back by being offside, on purpose, during a kick off - several times in a row. Coach Joe Pa went apoplectic, Coach Alvarez said, “that’s my boy”, college fans everywhere said, “HA! Stupid rule.” and the rule got changed back this year. For that coach, you get a tip of the hat.

This year the Badgers are going to miss veteran QB John Stocco but the pieces are all there, as long as the new QB doesn’t make mistakes, for this team to make a lot a noise on the national level and get people talking about there being a Big 3 in the Big Ten.

Prediction: 10-2 (6-2)

Worst Case: 8-4 (4-4)
A disastrous home letdown against Iowa and a half hearted loss to Michigan after an emotional loss at OSU the week before

Best Case: 12-0 (8-0)
Wisconsin gets it done only to be shut out of a USC vs LSU National Championship game, which leads Jim Delany to hire the 47 Ronin to force all the Div I college presidents to agree to a playoff system. Which will earn Brett another hat tip.