If you’re an avid ESPN watcher like I am you’ve probably stumbled across the 50 states tour on College Football Live, and if you’re a devout Badger fan like I am, you probably now despise Mark May.

It seems like Wisconsin either gets way too much love or way too little love from the media each year. Last year’s team was ranked No.13 in the preseason poll and was always mentioned as a strong candidate to compete for the Big Ten title when the year started. As we all know, that didn’t exactly happen. And back in 2006, the team that finished 12-1 started the year unranked and unnoticed.

The Badgers seem to perform better without high media expectations and I believe this program relishes the “we don’t get any respect” mentality. Well, the Badgers will now have that chip firmly placed on their shoulders as ESPN, and in particular, Mark May, have drastically lowered their expectations of this year’s squad.

Mr. May has always been a bit of a Badger-basher, but his latest analysis on College Football Live’s state tour reached a new level. May looked at UW’s schedule and said that he saw four winnable games for the Badgers. This includes wins against top-notch programs like Northern Illinois and Wofford. May said the Badgers will also escape with a win against Purdue and manage to steal a game somewhere else.

Wow, just wow. I knew the media expectations would be lower, but this is really, really low. I get that UW has a lot of question marks in the front seven and I get that the QB play has been poor, but four wins? At first glance, the Badgers 2009 schedule is extremely favorable and I personally see them winning eight or nine games. I don’t think this year’s team is anywhere near BCS caliber but I do think that the combination of an experienced offensive unit, some promising fresh faces on defense, and a soft schedule will allow for the Badgers to finish with a respectable record.

Let’s assume that the Badgers take care of their weak nonconference opponents (Northern Illinois, Fresno State, Wofford, and Hawaii) and beat up on Purdue and Indiana. That’s six wins right there. Ohio State is too good and the Badgers are looking at a loss in Columbus, but the rest of the schedule sets up nicely. You won’t see Penn State or Illinois which makes life much easier for the Badgers and I think UW is certainly capable of beating Northwestern on the road, Michigan at home, and a Ringer-less Michigan State at home. All those games probably won’t be wins, but I think it’s fair to say UW can muster two out of the three.

Iowa should be a pretty strong team and this match-up seems like a toss-up, but the Hawkeyes lost running back Shonn Greene to the NFL and his replacement, Jewel Hampton, already has a knee injury. And another thing – Ricky Stanzi just isn’t that good. I know our QB isn’t much better but we have John Clay and Zach Brown in the backfield while Iowa must rely on the injured Hampton and a bunch of other inexperienced backs. Also, this year’s battle for the Heartland Trophy will be taking place at Camp Randall Stadium, a big advantage for the Badgers. Lastly, the battle for the axe will be a tough game in Minnesota‘s brand new stadium, but remember that the Badgers have beaten the Gophers five times in a row.

Like I said before, UW thrives in this underdog role and I’m actually glad Mark May decided to rip into the Badgers and provide some bulletin board material. I fully expect the Badgers to have a strong bounce back season in a year where the media expectations have dropped considerably. I’m thinking the Badgers finish with eight or nine wins, while Mark May is predicting just four. I’ll gladly take on Mr. May, but let’s hope for all of our sakes I’m the one who ends up being right.