B5Q Blogopean Union: choosing between Ohio State and Minnesota in football was rough

Good morning! This is going to be a daily(ish) post that discusses the goings on of the rest of the Big Ten Conference, and the country as needed. Much like the European Union, the Big Ten is a loosely confederated group of entities that sometimes have the same goals (like free movement of people between countries or not winning national titles in football or basketball) and sometimes accept new members that they later regret (Estonia or Nebraska).

We hope that you will use this post to comment on things happening around the conference and also as a sort of daily open thread to discuss breaking news or argue about Spotted Cow (which we NO LONGER DO).

• Folks who have been reading this site for a while may remember that we used to do a post every morning (during the week) that contained updates from around the Wisconsin athletic department and the Big Ten in general. Now that it is fall (by sports being played, NOT by weather) we’ll be doing it again. You can hopefully expect this post to go up (just about) every weekday morning between 7:00 and 7:30 a.m. CT.
• While we are doing some site announcements, let me list all of the writers’ Twitter accounts so you can harass them over there too. Matt Belz, Tyler Hunt, Owen Riese, J.J. Post, Bremen Keasey, Jake Dicker, Ryan Mellenthin and Kevin O’Connell. You can find my Twitter handle at the top of this post and, as always, you can reach us @B5Q.
• You should also follow us on Instagram @buckys5thquarter and subscribe to Bucky’s 5th Podcast on Spotify, Apple and Stitcher. You can also like us on Facebook. Once Tyler finally learns how to dance, you’ll be able to find us on TikTok too.

• The Badgers swept Dayton at the Field House last night. We’ll have a full recap of both Dayton matches (they play again Friday night) on Saturday morning courtesy of Bremen.

• This is awesome news for the campus community and this will help things return to normal as quickly as possible. There can’t be too many things that you can get 90% of the campus to do/support outside of P.J. Fleck sucking mondo ass.

• There are a lot of cool special guests that are set to appear during timeouts at the game on Saturday, but these two hockey winners are some of the highlights.

• Jordyn Bloomer is slowly, but surely, rewriting the women’s soccer history books in Madison. The Badgers and Loyola (Chi.) Ramblers battled to a 0-0 draw in Chicago on Thursday night, thanks in large part to Bloomer’s work between the sticks.

• Apparently nil-nil was the popular score Thursday night (the USMNT also took home a scoreless point from El Salvador in their first World Cup qualifying match) as the men’s soccer team held Western Michigan scoreless.

• Hard not to get a little emotional and a little fired up while watching this. It has been really great to watch college football games with actual fans in the stands and I can’t wait until Camp Randall is rocking on Saturday morning.

You should also know that every fan is allowed to bring in one, sealed water bottle to the game on Saturday and that all concessions are cashless. UW also wants people to know that the lines may be a bit longer on Saturday as there aren’t as many concession workers, so plan your pregame snacks accordingly.

• Mark Titus and Charlotte Wilder of FOX Sports had themselves quite the day in Madison on Thursday. They ate at Mickie’s and State Street Brats, took in UW Band practice and tossed the ol’ pigskin around with one of the best QBs on campus.

• There was Big Ten football on Thursday night (and on Friday night too!) and it was a real Sophie’s Choice for Badgers fans. If you wanted Wisconsin’s oldest rivals, Minnesota, to lose then that meant you were cheering for Ohio State and if you wanted the detestable Buckeyes to lose...that meant that the Gophers got the biggest win of the young season.

After taking a lead into halftime, the Gophers just got out-talented by the Buckeyes in the second half and OSU ended up winning by 14. Ohio State didn’t look super impressive, but you could definitely tell that all of the pieces are there for this to be an excellent team: their wide receivers are unstoppable, the defensive line is ferocious and there are a whole host of running backs that can beat you.

The Gophers did look good in the first half, with Mo Ibrahim running all over Ohio State’s defense, but Ibrahim got hurt in the third quarter, QB Tanner Morgan had a bad game overall and Minnesota’s defense just couldn’t hold up for a full 60 minutes against OSU which, well, we get it.

• There is no official diagnosis of Ibrahim’s injury as I type this, but he was seen wearing a boot and people online aren’t super confident that it is minor. Ibrahim is the best RB in the Big Ten and an excellent dude by all accounts. Hopefully it wasn’t as bad as it looks and he’s able to play again this year.

• The staff at Black Shoe Diaries predicts the outcome of the PSU/Wisconsin game.
• It has been years and I still haven’t decided whether or not I like Northwestern’s Gothic uniforms.
• With the deadly flooding on the east coast, the Temple/Rutgers game was postponed from Thursday night until Saturday.
• West Virginia and Maryland have an interesting rivalry history that is being renewed on Saturday.
• I’m telling you this too, Illinois should NOT overlook UTSA this week.