As you may have heard, John Veldhuis is leaving us. He got a nice promotion elsewhere and we have big shoes to fill!

This is an excellent opportunity for young writers looking to break into the sports journalism business. It is not a paid position as all of our work on Bucky's 5th Quarter is for the love of the game. It is however, a great opportunity to get started in the business. With his hard work at B5Q, John earned a nice job on the beat and I wouldn't have my current job at CBSChicago.com without the work I've done on this site.

Duties: Cover Wisconsin football/basketball practices and games as well as important news conferences.

Requirements:

• Must have a journalism degree OR be a student currently working towards earning a journalism degree OR have notable experience covering college football/basketball.

• Must live in the Madison area.

• Must be able to attend weekly press conferences at 12:30 p.m. on Mondays during the fall/winter.

To apply: If interested, please send your resume and writing samples to aahoge@gmail.com.

Oversigning is a clear-cut competitive advantage that drastically tips the playing field in favor of the, for lack of a better word, Cheater. (I realize that there are glaring loopholes in this rule, so cheating is not the legally correct word.)

The results of oversigning on competitive balance are clearly shown by analyzing the results of this year’s bowl games. Teams offering more scholarships than their opponents went 15-4 in this year’s bowls. Almost all of these bowl winners are oversigning cheaters.

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I know this will sound like sour grapes, but wasn’t there something fishy about those Shrink Wrapped Duck Togs. At the very least those mirror glow helmets looked like individual aquarium head gear that may have been deployed to blast sun daggers into the eyes of our hardworking honest farm boys. I’m pretty sure they stole the design from the RoboCop franchise. I am certain that an exhaustive investigation would have unearthed that an illegal Nike connection concocted those uniforms complete with a thin coating of duck grease smeared on the Saran Wrap. An unnecessary bit of skullduckery as it turned out. One would have had to get ones arms around the uniforms to learn this. I’ve noticed a lot of teams have had some success with a completely legal maneuver called tackling. It must have been disturbing for the nearest chasing Badger to watch the Oregon numerals getting increasingly smaller. Bret Bielma’s name should be Bulimic as his coaching decisions invariably make me ralph.
I mean why not reduce your timeouts to one with 25 minutes left so the referee can run over a copy of College Football Rules for Dummies. What was the likelihood that a spare time out as time ran out would become an issue? And actually coach, in those situations [endless confusion] the trick is really to take the time out before the other team can run off another play. You my friend are a double threat. You are challenge challenged. This fellow Chryst, who will cure insomnia next fall at Pitt has been getting way too much all the credit for offense brilliance. For the 2nd game in a row I have watched Montee Ball announce his quality and break for 100 in the 1st quarter only to tragically watch his excellence eroded by knuckle headed play calling as the game continues. He [Chryst] can’t stand success. He wimps out and becomes absurdly predictable. In fact if one listened very closely you might have actually heard his penis shrink from his loft in the Badgers coaching Sky box....and those suckers are soundproofed. Everything that initially has put the opponent off balance goes by the boards, to be followed completely without guile, with non stop runs up the gut. Even the dimmest D learns to expect this and naturally lies in wait. Then, and only then, the brain trust [cramp] look to Wilson to bail us out in obvious passing situations completely negating his sublime arsenal of skills.
Russell I know you are a stand up guy and today this was your weakness. You should have ripped the helmet walky talky apart and called your own game. These clueless Game-Boys cost you a lot of money today. Hell, [sorry about the cussing] this was your last game and you have already got your degree. Benching you was the only sanction they could hit you with and as smart as you are, surely you knew they didn’t have the balls to do that. Please don’t kick yourself for the pick, it was the defensive play of the year, and who would blame the plucky Abbrederis for seeking a couple extra yards...how the hell did the ball just lie there motionless an inch from out of bounds, possession retained, first down...arrrrggghh! I find it very difficult to believe that it took you two seconds to spike a ball. But I don’t mind. It provides us all with a mythical if only... How likely was a miracle score really? Though a couple Hail Marys' were owed to you and unlike those godless bastards at Michigan State and The Ohio State University [cheats], you are actually in the big guys good books...and have actually cracked a book. But we disappointed will forever wonder what might have been, in an eternal tribute to yourself and in appreciation of how great it’s been to have you among us. For this all too brief time. And we will forever wonder what your coach at NC State was smoking when he encouraged you to expand your horizons. Perhaps he is related to Ted Thompson. [Fully recognizing how far south that sentiment has flown] Farewell Russell and Thank You. As great as you were with a lead, you were magnificent and brought as back with a shot in each loss. You were inspirational and we’ll probably never see your like again. Russell mania forever.

Did we get homered? I generally disagree with blaming the ref for a loss. But I have to know, does anyone else feel like we got homered? I am not talking about the safety that wasn't or the run off at the end of the first half, I am talking about holding. I went to the game, then watched it again on TV shortly afterward, and it couldn't help but notice that there was only 1 holding call against Oregon. I first noticed it during the game and I found it hard to believe that a team that runs so much to the outside and runs so much play action held on only 1 play. While watching the replay I noticed a number of holding calls that seemed blatant. Some of which were on scoring plays for Oregon. Does anyone else feel the same way? Or am I just trying to sooth the pain?

I went to the game yesterday as a Duck fan, and must say how truly impressed I was by every Badger fan I met. This included some nice pre-game tailgate with a few of your brothers and sisters. I sat next to a number of Badger fans at the game and they too were great both during and most importantly after the game (when it can be hard to be). Two years ago, I witnessed the opposite from a number of Buckeye fans who were completely awful to a number of us after that game. Again, it was a wonderful game, and you guys proved to be by far the classiest opposition fan base I have met!

Good luck next year, I will be rooting for Bucky in the future as my new 2nd favorite team.

Once a year, many college football fans, including myself, tend to ask the "what if we had a playoff system in college football?" question. As Wisconsin would again be present in numerous iterations of a playoff bracket following a solid regular season and Big Ten Championship victory, let's take a hypothetical look at what Wisconsin's position would be in a few postseason bracket set-ups. I decided to use the AP Poll rankings to simulate what a hypothetical playoff committee would rank teams, as I feel it is the most reasonable ranking system out there. I also used the college football simulator at WhatIfSports.com to produce the tentative winners of these games, which is just much more fun and intriguing than advancing the higher seeded team. (Note: USC will not be considered eligible for this exercise.)

FOUR TEAM CONFERENCE CHAMPION BRACKET

This setup would cause as much controversy as the BCS already does, but it's the only way Wisconsin would earn a spot in a four-team playoff this year. In this scenario, the four highest ranked conference champions would earn their way to a four-team showdown.

Monday, Jan. 2

#6 Oregon Ducks (11-2, Pac-12 Champions) at #3 Oklahoma State Cowboys (11-1, Big 12 Champions): 4 PM, Boone Pickens Stadium, Stillwater, Okla. (Oklahoma State wins 44-34.)

#9 Wisconsin Badgers (11-2, Big Ten Champions) at #1 LSU Tigers (13-0, SEC Champions): 7:30 PM, Tiger Stadium, Baton Rouge, La. (Wisconsin wins 55-17.)

Monday, Jan. 9- Semifinal losers meet in the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Ariz. Tentative opponents: LSU vs. Oregon. (Oregon wins 23-20.)

Wednesday, Jan. 11- Semifinal winners meet in the National Championship in New Orleans, La. Tentative opponents: Oklahoma State vs. Wisconsin. (Wisconsin wins the national championship, 34-31.)

Notes: Not an easy road for the Badgers here. LSU at their place at night would be incredibly tough task, but it would be a really fun to see how Russell and Montee match up against the Honey Badger and the rest of the staunch LSU defense. I don't know why WhatIfSports thinks we could drop 55 on the Tigers in Death Valley! (The second sim I did, to make sure it wasn't broken, had LSU winning 31-24.) A Wisconsin win means facing a tough offense in the national championship, a loss means a nice consolation appearance in the Fiesta Bowl. The predictor taunts us with a Wisconsin national championship victory. By the way, this particular playoff set-up doesn't seem sustainable.

EIGHT TEAM BRACKET

The more the merrier, right? There are many ways you can set up a eight team bracket, and here I'm going to go with a few basic rules to set this one up. There are six potential guaranteed berths: SEC champion, Big Ten champion, ACC champion, Big 12 champion, Pac-12 champion, and highest-ranked non-AQ team (not necessarily champion). Yes, the Big East is now no longer considered an AQ conference here. But there's one caveat to these guaranteed berths: the team has to finish in the top 15 of the hypothetical committee's rankings to qualify for the guaranteed berth. This year, all 6 guaranteed berths qualified, leaving 2 at-large spots. Other years, more at-large spots could be open.

Saturday, Dec. 24

#14 Clemson Tigers (10-3, ACC Champions) at #1 LSU Tigers (13-0, SEC Champions): 7 PM, Tiger Stadium, Baton Rouge, La. (LSU wins, 40-3.)

#9 Wisconsin Badgers (11-2, Big Ten Champions) at #2 Alabama Crimson Tide (11-1, at-large berth): 4 PM, Bryant-Denny Stadium, Tuscaloosa, Ala. (Alabama wins, 44-30.)

#8 Boise State Broncos (11-1, non-AQ qualifier) at #3 Oklahoma State Cowboys (11-1, Big 12 Champions): 1 PM, Boone Pickens Stadium, Stillwater, Okla. (Oklahoma State wins, 45-27.)

#6 Oregon Ducks (11-2, Pac-12 Champions) at #4 Stanford Cardinal (11-1, at-large berth): 8:30 PM, Stanford Stadium, Palo Alto, Calif. (Oregon wins, 38-21.)

Monday, Jan. 2: Highest remaining seed hosts lowest remaining seeds, 2nd highest remaining hosts 3rd highest remaining. Tentative: Oregon at LSU (Oregon wins, 16-9), Oklahoma State at Alabama (Oklahoma State wins, 62-27.)

Wednesday, Jan. 4: Two quarterfinal losers meet in the Orange Bowl in Miami, Fla. Tentative: Clemson vs. Boise State (Boise State wins, 66-19.)

Thursday, Jan. 5: Two quarterfinal losers meet in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, La. Tentative: Wisconsin vs. Stanford (Stanford wins, 37-20.)

Monday, Jan. 9: Semifinal losers meet in the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Ariz. Tentative: LSU vs. Alabama (Alabama wins, 52-17.)

Wednesday, Jan. 11: Semifinal winners meet in the National Championship in New Orleans, La. Tentative: Oregon vs. Oklahoma State. (Oregon wins the national championship, 52-35.)

Notes: #7 Arkansas is the team that gets screwed in this scenario. If #5 USC was playoff eligible, they'd be screwed too. #6 Oregon having to go to #4 Stanford in the first round would raise a lot of eyebrows as the Ducks beat Stanford head-to-head, but the committee looks at more than just head-to-head results when compiling their rankings, and Oregon's loss to USC hurt the Ducks' ranking. Wisconsin vs. Alabama would be another fun game, and I actually kind of like the Badgers' chance in that one. The road to a national championship would be Alabama, LSU, and Oklahoma State, so the Badgers would certainly have to earn it. Other interesting oddity is the possible clash of Boise orange and Clemson orange at the Orange Bowl.

That will do it for the first part of this what-if playoff installment. The two Rose Bowl participants both picked up hypothetical national championship victories, so congratulations to the Oregon Ducks and Wisconsin Badgers on their fake titles. In part two next week, we'll throw even more teams into the playoff mix and see what craziness ensues. See you then.

So I was reading my SBN Utah Utes blog and came across this article. Looks like Wisco is competing in the 'free agent' market again this year! I was wondering if anybody has heard anything else about this? What is our QB situation looking like for next year in terms of guys already on our squad and incoming recruits? Is Dayne Crist somebody we'd really go after with all of his injuries? He's no Russell Wilson that's for sure. Would he even want to come to Wisconsin with us losing 21 seniors (15 of which are starters) this year?

FYI: I've been a life long Utes fan from growing up in Salt Lake City, but I graduated from UW-Madison a few years ago. I gotta say I'm conflicted on who to root for with this --as with a likely Utah vs Wisconsin rose bowl in the near future-- but in the end I need to go with my alma mater!

I'm a Husker fan who got a little ahead of himself and bought 8 B1G Championship game tickets a while back. Looking to sell them. They are on stubhub right now, but I will gladly sell them to someone here so stubhub can't take a piece. I'm dropping the price down to $60/ticket (face value is $77). Section 607, Row 9, Seats 6-13. Willing to break up into groups of 2 tickets. Can FedEx them to you. Message me if you are interested.

Complete collapses left Wisconsin reeling in the Big Ten hunt. Michigan State ripped apart Wisconsin's defense for an average of 7 yards per play and 399 yards of total offense.

On the surface, that sounds about right.

In reality, 3 giant plays got the Spartans the bulk of their offensive yardage. A 34-yard end around TD by Keshawn Martin (complete with multiple missed tackles). A 35-yard TD strike from Cousins to B.J. Cunningham that improbably got into the endzone, also because of multiple missed tackles. Finally, a 44-yard TD pass from Cousins to Nichol as time expired.

All told, on 3 offensive plays, all of which went for TDs, the Badgers gave up 113 yards.

Ouch. That's quite awful. Add in the fact that Michigan State was not assessed a single penalty, and you have a recipe for disaster.

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Very sore subject here I know, but I'd like to see other fans opinion on defending the Hail Mary.  I know what I am asking would not have helped in the game Vs. OSU, but it may have been effective Vs MSU.

 

By rushing just 3 lineman, and dropping 8 guys to near the endzone, you are giving the opposing QB time to throw without anyone in his face.  Further, you are giving the opposing wideouts time to run to the endzone.  Given that even the fastest guys run only 4.3 in the 40 yard dash it is going to take at least that long to even reach the endzone.  Further still, with so many bodies near the endzone, the chance is greater that the ball pinballs off of someone and ends up in the wrong hands.

Why not rush at least 4, and possibly even 5 guys, and at least contest the receivers (if not play outright press coverage)?  You would still have at minimum 6 and maybe 7 guys to cover their 5 receivers.  One of the guys you rush should at least get some pressure on the QB before the wideouts can even get to the endzone.

I'm not a football expert by any means.  I would just like to see others opinion on defending the Hail Mary in such manner.  Thanks