By the time the third quarter had ended, the students had jumped around, the rain continued to fall and the Wisconsin Badgers were the owners of a 37-3 lead. To put it in layman’s terms, fans were leaving in droves.

It would have been easy — and perhaps expected — for a team like Wisconsin, with a formidable running game, to do what they do best and slowly, methodically run the ball each drive as they closed out a game that had quickly lost its competitive edge.

Yet, after Wisconsin kick returner Jared Abbrederis fair caught the ball on the 37-yard line and the Wisconsin offense took the field with 14 minutes, 17 seconds left in the game, it seemed that was the last thing on offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig and head coach Gary Andersen’s minds.

Instead, redshirt sophomore quarterback Joel Stave was given the green light to pass, completing two straight, before freshman running back Corey Clement capped off the drive with a 19-yard touchdown run. The drive only took 2 minutes and 53 seconds.

While, Andersen would never admit it, it seems he took a play out of former Wisconsin head coach Bret Bielema’s playbook: Beat up on Indiana to help boost Wisconsin’s BCS stock — one final last-ditch Hail Mary attempt to fight its way to a BCS bowl game.

The BCS is a tricky poll to maneuver and after Wisconsin opened the poll sitting outside of the top-25, the Badgers have slowly, but surely crept up to No. 22 in the past couple of week. With only two more games left to play after Saturday’s win, however, Andersen and Co. are running out of time if they plan on marching their way up the poll to a top-14 position and a shot at an at-large bid to a BCS bowl game in the postseason.

There were certainly opportunities for Wisconsin to move up this weekend, with No. 16 Michigan State facing a tough Nebraska team and No. 12 Oklahoma State playing No. 24 Texas. But with time running out on the season, Wisconsin’s BCS hopes are about as foggy as the weather that plagued Camp Randall on a rainy Saturday afternoon.

While the win over Indiana was certainly a step in the right direction, it may be too little, too late. Wisconsin will likely have to do much more against an 8-2 Minnesota team and mediocre Penn State to catch the eye of the computers for a BCS bowl to become a legitimate possibility.

Is it possible? Yes, but is it likely? Far from it.

Suddenly, the catastrophic images of Sept. 14 at Arizona State come back to the forefront for a Wisconsin football team that has fought so hard over the last 10 weeks to erase them from its memory.

Whether you agree or disagree with the call, that single moment put the Badgers in a grave, their fate sealed, and they have been unable to climb out of it.

For the players, it has made this season one filled with frustration at what could have been.

Redshirt senior Conor O’Neill expressed this frustration best in an interview with The Badger Herald earlier this week:

“We’ve lost two games to two good teams by two points and then a touchdown, so if the BCS wants to take away the chance at a bowl game for that, then so be it.”

So what is my goal in bringing up that game and reopening the old wounds for Badger fans this season? The events are done and while the Pac-12 refs were reprimanded, nothing else will be done about that fateful evening.

I bring it up because it seems each year there is something that prevents Wisconsin from living up to its expectations.

Each of the past three years, Wisconsin has played second fiddle to its opponent in the Rose Bowl, and now it won’t even get that chance (Hello, Capital One Bowl – at least Florida is warm right?).

Don’t forget about the Hail Mary loss to Michigan State in 2011 that derailed Wisconsin’s BCS National Championship hopes.

Ultimately, when it has really counted over the last few years, Wisconsin has not often been the team to come out on top. Take a look at the other top teams — the perennial powerhouses — they win those games in those crucial moments.

Some of that is luck, but much of it rests on the players, coaches and the team’s ability to recruit talent. The Badgers just aren’t on the same level; even watching a quarter of an Alabama or Florida State game would make this abundantly clear.

And yet the average fan at Wisconsin expects the world from this team each August as fall camp kicks off and the conversations about the Rose Bowl and Wisconsin’s running game take over water coolers all across the state.

The University of Wisconsin is regularly ranked as one of the top college sports towns, with its fans nationally recognized for their passion for their team.

For many, the University of Wisconsin experience IS football.

So even if the Badgers pull off two more wins and bring their record to an impressive 10-2, it isn’t enough.

Since athletic director Barry Alvarez turned the Wisconsin program around in the late 90s, Wisconsin football expectations have been raised to the next level.

Now it’s time for Wisconsin football to live up to them.

Nick is a senior majoring in journalism and political science. Think that Wisconsin has big things in the cards for the rest of the season? Let him know at [email protected].