Pollsters not impressed with Badgers’ Big Ten title

The Wisconsin football team did not get much love from the pollsters after winning the Big Ten title and its third straight Rose Bowl berth.

The Badgers returned to the USA Today coaches’ poll Sunday at No. 23. Wisconsin was not ranked in the AP media poll. They didn’t show up in the BCS standings, either, after getting a spot in one of the top BCS bowl games.

Wisconsin will take an 8-5 record to Pasadena when it plays Pac 12 champion Stanford on New Year’s Day.

Stanford won its league title on Friday night with a three-point win over UCLA. The Badgers crushed Nebraska 70-31 for the Big Ten crown.

Stanford is making its first Rose Bowl appearance since 1999 when the Cardinal lost 17-9 to Barry Alvarez’s Badgers. Stanford is 11-2, with a No. 6 BCS ranking.

UW-Oshkosh vs. St. Thomas

UW-Oshkosh will play at St. Thomas on Saturday in the semifinals of the NCAA Division III football playoffs.

Then Titans ended Linfield’s 25-game home winning streak on Saturday with a 31-24 overtime victory in Oregon. Oshkosh has now won 15 straight games, the nation’s longest active streak.

The fifth-ranked Titans are 13-0 this season and will face a No. 4 St. Thomas team that’s also 13-0 after crushing seventh-ranked Hobart 47-7 over the weekend.

The semifinal winner will move on to the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl against either top-ranked Mt. Union or No. 2 Mary Hardin Baylor. The Division III title game is set for Dec. 14 in Salem, Va.

Badger men’s basketball team routs Cal

The Wisconsin men’s basketball team handed California its first loss of the season with a 81-56 rout in Madison Sunday.

The Badgers went up by 13 at halftime with the help of two runs of 14-0 and 12-0. The Badgers put together an 11-0 run early in the second half.

Allen Crabbe opened the second by making two free throws that put the Golden Bears behind by 11. That’s the closest they would get.

Four Badgers scored in double figures, led by Ben Brust with a season-high 22. Crabbe scored 25 for California, which fell to 6-1.

The Bears failed to go 7-0 for the first time since 1959.

The Badgers out-shot California 52 to 38 percent, and Wisconsin took advantage of 23 Bears’ turnovers while committing just 13 themselves.

But the biggest applause from the Kohl Center crowd was given to football coach Bret Bielema. He and running backs Montee Ball, James White and Melvin Gordon hoisted their Big Ten trophy to the crowd during the first time out.

Bo Ryan’s Badgers improved to 5-3 and will host Nebraska-Omaha Tuesday night.

Tags: wi sports, sports, proam