For the second consecutive week, the AP Poll has dropped the University of Wisconsin football team’s ranking by a spot.
It’s unfortunate the team is off to such a rough start as to deserve down-grades in two straight rankings, right?
I’ll save you the Google: the Badgers came away from week one with a 34–3 victory over Western Kentucky and finished this weekend after a 45–14 win over New Mexico.
Umm, what?
Maybe President Donald Trump was right, the press might be the enemy of the people.
Football: Jonathan Taylor earns Big Ten Player of the Week after dominant performance
Now, if you’ve read Tuesday’s takeaway column (I assume this describes at the very least my Mom and Grandma), you know I haven’t exactly been too proud of these two Badger wins. I think it has shown at varying times a relative weakness on the offensive line and an inability to quickly adjust on the defensive side of the ball.
But I go to every Badger game and need to think of things to write about! Of course, I’m going to think of bad takes to criticize Wisconsin. The voters at the AP, besides the few voters from Wisconsin, haven’t watched a Badger game outside of a Big Ten Title game in their lives. Everything they do with UW ranking-wise is based on word of mouth.
Besides for the annual Sports Illustrated story on how great it is Wisconsin finds all its lineman from within the state, a story which is recycled literally every year, nobody in the national media knows anything about Badger football.
Football: Jonathan Taylor’s record day gives UW 45–14 win over New Mexico
Wisconsin started out the season at No. 4 because some of the voters looked at the undefeated 2017 record, then back at the poll, then looked at the Heisman-favorite Jonathan Taylor, then looked back at their poll, until they grudgingly penciled UW after Alabama, Clemson and Georgia. They were just trying to placate fans by giving UW a pseudo-acknowledgment, only to continue to ignore their dominance once the season was underway.
Now, the response to my argument is going to be: “But they have such an easy schedule?”
First off: Cool, original, awesome.
Secondly: Is the AP Poll a consensus predicated on how good Wisconsin is or how good their opponents are? I was under the assumption it was the former.
A perfect example is this week’s match-up against BYU. When the Badgers scheduled BYU for the 2017 and 2018 seasons, it was 2012. 2012 was such a drastically different time. During that season, Mark Schlabach compared BYU quarterback Riley Nelson to Tim Tebow. Not only does that speak to the expectations for BYU at the time, but it shows how long ago 2012 was. 2012 was so long ago that comparing someone to Tim Tebow was a compliment!
Back then BYU was on the come-up. For all anyone knew, 2018 BYU could have been the new Alabama. To save you yet another Google search: they stink. Big Whoop. The AP Poll apparently wants UW football to become NCAA imperialists, infiltrate the BYU Program, and maintain their stature so that when it comes time to play them it will actually matter.
Anyway, the AP Poll is stupid.
