Badger Bits: Game film saga with Oregon State continues

A couple days ago, we learned that Bret Bielema elected to not send any game tape of the Wisconsin/Northern Iowa matchup to Oregon State — UW's foe this weekend. At first glance, this story appeared intriguing. What would cause Bielema to not partake in this customary act of college football coaches? Believe it or not, the answer stems from a hurricane. The effects of Hurricane Isaac in the Southwest region of the United States affected the status of multiple college football games, including Oregon State's home opener against Nicholls State (Thibodaux, Louisiana). The hurricane forced the cancellation of the game (Nicholls State couldn't make the trip because of weather conditions), so Bielema figured if he couldn't have game film of Oregon State, the Beavers weren't entitled to tape of the Badgers.

The story continued Tuesday with somewhat conflicting reports from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Oregonlive.com — which is powered by The Oregonian. The Sentinel reported that since Oregon State head coach Mike Riley couldn't get hold of the coaches' tape, he had to settle for a recording of the game from the Big Ten Network. Conversely, Jeff Potrykus of the Sentinel points out how Oregonlive.com reported that Riley managed to get his hands on a copy of the coaches' version (he wouldn't reveal his source though). It should be said there is a major difference between film from a telecast and from the coaches. The Oregonlive.com article said, "Of course, the game was on TV, so the Beavers had tape of the telecast, but coaches’ game film looks nothing like television. In the game film, the coach can see all 22 players from sideline angles, plus the very useful end zone angle that illuminates line play."

The whole story is quite comical. I stand by Bielema for not sending the tape because he wants a fair fight on Saturday and wouldn't want to put his team at any disadvantage. With so many questions left unanswered, we can only wait and see how the rest of the game film saga plays out. I can already picture College Gameday debating whether the game film "debacle" will affect either team's performance on the field.

Wednesday's Links:

Check out how each writer for college football's AP poll voted for Wisconsin after its opening game scare.

The Badgers slip one spot in this week's AP poll, as Michigan State moves up to No. 13.

Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio wasn't pleased with his players bashing Michigan on Twitter during Alabama's beat down of Big Blue. Bret Bielema embraces his players use of Twitter, but said his only policy involves the players' mothers.

Is the right side of the Badgers' offensive line still a work in progress? An interesting analytical piece reveals that may be the case.

Tough news for freshman runningback Vontee Jackson and the Badgers: Jackson injured his right knee last week, which now appears to be a torn ACL. This would devastating for Jackson, who finally returned from an ACL injury that occurred during his senior year of high school.

Here's an early scouting report of the Oregon State Beavers.

ESPN.com's Big Ten Blog released it's conference power rankings for Week 2.