As the four teams who qualified for the College Football Playoff begin to settle in for the actual playoff, Badgers Wire thought it would be interesting to examine what the Wisconsin Badgers could learn from each of the teams in the Playoff. This column will look at what they could learn from the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Whenever you’re trying to reach the summit, it’s always helpful to look at the team you must knock off to reach that mountaintop. One needs to see what that team is doing. In the case of the Wisconsin Badgers, the team that is most frequently in their way is the Ohio State Buckeyes.
If not for the Buckeyes, it’s likely that Wisconsin may have had more success winning Big Ten titles and making the College Football Playoff. However, Urban Meyer and Ryan Day have had the Buckeyes poised for national success. Both coaches were prepared to win when they took the Ohio State job at different points in this past decade. The Buckeyes have won nine Big Ten championships since 2005, whereas Wisconsin has won two outright championships and three overall. They split one with Michigan State, but ultimately lost in the Rose Bowl, which they made by virtue of being the higher ranked Big Ten team in the BCS final standings for 2010.
What the Buckeyes represent is next-level consistency. They’re a program that wins week-in, week-out, and year-in, year-out. Wisconsin has shown it knows how to win year-in, year-out — posting 10 seasons with 10 or more victories since 1999. What the Badgers haven’t done is find a way to beat the top Big Ten teams week-in, week-out. They’re 5-11 against Ohio State since 1999, including a dismal 2-5 at home. In Big Ten Championship Games against the Buckeyes, they’ve been outscored 120-42. Against Michigan, the Badgers are 5-8. The upside to this rivalry is that the Badgers are 5-2 against the Wolverines at home. They just can’t beat them in the Big House.
Badgers Wire will cover more of Wisconsin’s recent track record of performance against the Big Ten in the final days of 2019, but right now it’s best to stop at Ohio State, which represents the cream of the crop in the Big Ten. The Buckeyes provide a glimpse at whom Wisconsin must beat if the Badgers want to wear the crown. If Wisconsin can learn to win the high-value games against the conference’s elite year-in and year-out as the Buckeyes have done, the Badgers already have the talent and recruiting to compete with the rest of the nation.