Poor Vonte Jackson! He's the one in the Matt Forte jersey, solemnly ducking seemingly every other member of the team after Aaron Rodgers hit Randall Cobb for what turned out to be the game-winning touchdown vs. the Bears Sunday.

Turns out Melvin Gordon returning to Wisconsin for his junior season hasn't hurt the Badgers in the race for Joe Mixon. The five-star running back from Oakley, Calif., announced his top three via Twitter Saturday, naming Oklahoma and UCLA alongside Wisconsin, in no order. Mixon will announce his decision Jan. 4 at the U.S. Army All-American Bowl at the Alamodome in San Antonio.

We shouldn't be surprised, but the Joe Mixon speculation station is hitting full stride as his Jan. 4 decision date approaches. Friday morning, Wisconsin running backs coach Thomas Hammock gave us this incredibly enticing tweet. WiscoSportsNut sure didn't enjoy it. And now, we have word from Mixon (with some emojis to boot) that a top three will be coming soon. His top four currently includes -- supposedly in no order -- UCLA, Cal, Wisconsin and Oklahoma.

Wisconsin center Frank Kaminsky missed practice Thursday with a right foot injury of unknown severity. He was not made available to the media, despite being requested. A UW spokesman did say the junior, who was sporting a walking boot, was day-to-day. Kaminsky leads the Badgers in scoring with 14.7 points per game and is undoubtedly on the shortlist the Badgers could absolutely not afford to lose for an extended period of time. Wisconsin hosts Eastern Kentucky at noon Saturday.

March Madness... in January? That's the point of this 64-team bracket cooked up by USA TODAY. Wisconsin would be the No. 5 seed in the West based on its 9-3 regular season, playing Ole Miss. That's boring compared to the real-life Capital One Bowl matchup with South Carolina. The Gamecocks, by the way, would be the No. 2 seed in the East, facing Boston College. Nine Big Ten teams made the bracket, including Maryland, which joins the fold next season.

WELL I JUST GOT WORD THAT THIS STINKS.

"This is why you don't give college football players a million weeks off before the bowl game!" said nobody.

South Carolina's official website has video and transcripts of head coach Steve Spurrier and quarterback Connor Shaw discussing the Gamecocks' Capital One Bowl berth. Wisconsin's should be up shortly.

Shortly after Wisconsin's Capital One Bowl berth became official, Gary Andersen hopped on a teleconference to discuss the Badgers' season. Wisconsin finished No. 19 in the last-ever BCS standings and will face No. 9 South Carolina on New Year's Day.

In no order, of course. At least we can understand (kind of) why his list is not in alphabetical order. Joe Mixon, on the other hand...