USA TODAY Sports college football analyst Paul Myerberg has his report cards filled out. He is delivering them to all 130 Football Bowl Subdivision programs. You can see for yourself where the Wisconsin Badgers fit by reading the article.
Without giving away the answer on which grade Myerberg gave to Wisconsin, a few points are worth noting about the Wisconsin grade and the basis for all 130 grades presented in the article (which are not an ENDORSEMENT of the article’s views, merely an explanation of what they mean in context).
First of all, Wisconsin has set a relatively high standard the previous few years, especially in 2017, when the program went 13-1 and captured a New Year’s Six bowl win for the second straight season. Wisconsin entered this season with five straight bowl wins, coming off a 2018 season which was rough not just because of bad quarterback play, but due to a lot of injuries on defense which plainly prevented the Badgers from reaching their full potential.
I mention Wisconsin’s high standard the previous few seasons because Myerberg bases his grades, in part, on the standards and expectations held by various programs entering the season. Myerberg notes, for instance, that while Alabama and Minnesota both won New Year’s Day (non-NY6) bowl games to finish 11-2, Minnesota got the higher grade of the two because its standards and expectations were not nearly as high entering the 2019 season. The context in which various football programs compete is a part of the intellectual architecture for handing out a specific grade this past season.
This raises a basic question: What is YOUR idea of how you would grade a team for its season? Would it be fundamentally in line with Myerberg’s evaluation? What might be different in your intellectual framework? This is a very subjective question. Feel free to weigh in on this and more Badgers posts (for football and basketball alike) on our Facebook page.
Some brief final notes: Only four programs earned an A-plus grade. LSU and Baylor are the two obvious choices. Find out the other two in Myerberg’s article.
Only seven programs received an A grade, and five were from the Group of Five. Find out which two Power Five conference programs received an A.
Without giving away Wisconsin’s grade, I can also tell you this: Myerberg gave Wisconsin a grade which was better than Alabama’s… and worse than Indiana’s.
I’m done. Go read the article and see what you think of UW’s grade.