There was a football game Saturday night at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, but apparently Wisconsin’s invitation got lost in the mail.

In a perfect storm of possibilities that snowballed into a disaster, the Badgers came out flat, finished miserably and got pummeled everywhere in between. But it wasn’t just a disappointing loss in the national spotlight. It was one of the worst losses in program history. In fact, it tied UW’s largest shutout defeat with the other being a 59-0 drubbing from 1979 against none other than the Buckeyes.

And that’s saying something because the Badgers were awful for the better part of the last half century before the new millennium. In the time frame from 1960-1989 before Barry Alvarez took over as head coach in 1990 and resurrected the program, UW had just nine winning seasons of the 30 total. That includes the likes of a 1980 season where Wisconsin lost seven games and four of them came by way of shutouts by no less than 21 points.

However, it’s one thing to have a disappointing game in a season and period where Wisconsin football was nonexistent and expected to underwhelm. It’s quite another to play in a high profile game where the Badgers were not only expected to do well, but win the game. Remember how Wisconsin entered Saturday night as a four-point favorite? It looks like those people setting the line need to be fired.

But how were the people setting the odds or anyone who knew anything about football supposed to predict the outcome that actually occurred in the Big Ten Championship game? Wisconsin had won seven straight games coming into the title bout after losing its first conference game against Northwestern. They had dominated Nebraska in a 59-24 win at Camp Randall just three weeks before and were fresh off a 34-24 victory over Minnesota last weekend.

Like the moves of Ohio State quarterback Cardale Jones though, this Wisconsin team was deceptive. Sure, the Badgers won 10 games in the regular season, but they weren’t as good as those 10 wins might have led you to believe. UW couldn’t hold on against what turned out to be a mediocre team in LSU in the first game of the season. The Badgers had a scare in the first half of week two against Western Illinois. Then they fell to the Wildcats, and after that barely escaped Illinois. They went on to narrowly escape Iowa City with a win and came back in the second half last weekend to nudge Minnesota.

But the common theme throughout this season is that Wisconsin had yet to face a well-rounded team before Saturday. Of the 12 games the Badgers played in the regular season, their opponents were either subpar or decent teams with missing parts.

The last three weeks of the regular season mirror that exactly. First there was Nebraska which had a strong rushing attack but a woeful passing game led by Tommy  “Heave it to the Moon” Armstrong. Against Iowa, stopping the run didn’t prove as difficult, but the Hawkeyes’ passing attack gave Wisconsin fits. The regular season finale against the Gophers featured another quality running back in David Cobb, who went for 118 yards, but again very little in the line of a passing game.

Wisconsin managed three wins in those three games, but there were flashes of ineptitude that should have pointed to the looming disaster that was Saturday night. Iowa’s Jake Rudock tore the Badgers’ defense to bits through the air with 311 yards and showed that Wisconsin, despite having what was at the time the number one overall defense in terms of yards allowed, was vulnerable.

So, if a team could just pass and run the ball effectively in the same game, Wisconsin could be in trouble. And that’s exactly what happened against Ohio State. The Buckeyes started with the ball, mixed play calls with both runs and passes and scored a touchdown in a hurry. The Buckeyes then went on to repeat that formula on seven of their final 13 drives in the game.

Wisconsin tried to come up with a solution to the problem but had little to no prior experience to work off of and failed miserably. Meanwhile, the offense had an early hole to try to climb out of and devolved back into the offense that came out to play against Northwestern minus 183 Melvin Gordon rushing yards.

And it’s true that pretty much everything that could have possibly gone wrong, went wrong. But at some point Wisconsin’s luck was going to run out and it was going to meet its match. Unfortunately, that came on one of the biggest possible stages and in one of the most embarrassing fashions.

But I’m not saying the Badgers were a team this season that is truly represented by a 59-0 loss. There were some well-played games and some solid comebacks from early deficits to earn the 10 wins. Maybe Wisconsin was even a good team this year.

But it’s hard to think that now after the shellacking it got handed by the Buckeyes.

Maybe it’s a good thing UW lost its first game of the season because then the Badgers wouldn’t have fooled us into thinking they were a National Champion, much less a Big Ten Champion.