The Godfather of Bracketology, Joe Lunardi, released his latest bracket projection on Friday morning, Feb. 21.
He has the Wisconsin Badgers as a No. 7 seed. Are you beginning to — as Aaron Rodgers might say — “R-E-L-A-X”?
If you’re a skeptic about Wisconsin’s NCAA bubble positioning, you should begin to loosen up those shoulders and unclench your fists. You can begin to release that nervous energy and that instinctive skepticism which was merited after the 5-5 start and the ugly Purdue-Iowa sequence in late January which put this team in a bind. The more the season continues, the better the outlook gets for Wisconsin.
We told you earlier this week that USA TODAY projected Wisconsin as a 9 seed… BEFORE the win over Purdue. That would suggest Wisconsin is at least an 8 seed right now. With Lunardi projecting a 7 seed, we can generally arrive at a majority viewpoint among bracketologists: Wisconsin is probably no worse than an 8 right now.
That is a comfortable position in the NCAA field. Only a large losing streak will get in the way of this. Wisconsin would have to lose at home to Northwestern and lose at least two other games, probably three, to fall all the way out of the field. If the Badgers avoid losing to Northwestern at home (and really, how worried are you about that game?), they will avoid the one loss which can profoundly hurt them.
Let’s say that UW does lose to Northwestern, though. Okay, so the Badgers might fall to the 10-seed line if they are currently an 8 seed. That’s still in the field with some margin for error. Wisconsin would have to lose other games, and since the Big Ten is so deep and good this season, other losses won’t be terrible losses. They won’t be GREAT losses, no, but they won’t severely drag down a profile, Nebraska being the only exception other than Northwestern.
If this was a more typical Big Ten year — one in which Rutgers and Penn State weren’t very good — Wisconsin would have cause to worry about this upcoming Sunday’s game against Rutgers. As is, however, losing to Rutgers would not significantly damage UW’s overall profile.
Wisconsin is in a good spot in terms of Dancing in March.
R-E-L-A-X. Listen to your favorite Green Bay Packer quarterback.