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Wisconsin Football Tickets - Did Fans See The Most Overlooked Team In The Country?

Wisconsin football tickets are always in demand, no matter the circumstances. Since the arrival of Barry Alvarez in 1990, the Badgers have enjoyed one of the most successful runs of success in college football, winning three Rose Bowl titles, appearing in several other big-time bowl games and producing a Heisman Trophy winner in RB Ron Dayne.

However, the Badgers lost an icon after the 2005 season, as Alvarez retired from coaching and took on Athletic Director duties full-time. He handed the reigns of his carefully-built program to Bret Bielema, who at the time was the youngest coach in Division 1 football. Bielema was a bit of an unknown with the national media, and the Badgers were coming into 2006 with a very young team. Funny thing is, all they did was win nearly every game on their schedule, finishing the regular season 11-1. No one talked about them for the BCS, and no one mentions them with the best teams in the country. We’ll explore why that is below.

The Powers in the Big Ten

Unfortunately for Wisconsin, the dominance displayed by Ohio State and Michigan throughout the season overshadowed Wisconsin’s success. The Badgers didn’t play Ohio State this year, and lost a hard-fought, early-season road game to Michigan. Until those two played each other, neither had been beaten, and there was no room for talk of Wisconsin after Michigan and Ohio State. Not to mention, the BCS only allows two teams from any conference to play in a BCS bowl game, which pretty much kept Wisconsin out of the picture all season.

Their Schedule

Wisconsin football tickets are never easy to find, but the Badgers didn’t necessarily add to the intrigue with their schedule. The BCS measures a team in part by their strength of schedule, and playing San Diego State, Western Illinois, Buffalo and Bowling Green isn’t going to impress the computers or the voters. Wisconsin did have a game scheduled with Oregon State this year, but the Beavers, so it’s believed, pulled out at the last minute, forcing Wisconsin to scramble for a replacement. Regardless, this reality hurt the Badgers’ polling and BCS number.

Pre-Season Ranking

One thing that’s becoming apparent under the BCS is that most teams need to begin the season with a high ranking in order to have a shot at the BCS. Voters like a sure thing, and Wisconsin was anything but a known commodity this past summer. They had a new young coach, a talented but very young roster and several questions coming into their season. Their starting RB was a redshirt freshman, they had to replace their entire WR and TE corps and their OL, always the strength of Wisconsin, was an unknown aside from the great Joe Thomas. All these questions lead to the Badgers getting ignored in the polls, and they could never catch up.

Overall, though, there’s nothing to apologize about when you go 11-1 in the Big Ten, and whoever winds up playing Wisconsin in their bowl game will find out just how underrated they are. Wisconsin football tickets will also be snapped up for the game, as Wisconsin fans are legendary for their festive support of the team on the road.

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