BCS Standings 2011: Wisconsin Won't Crack Top 4 Even with Win over Spartans

Few teams have had more trouble earning respect this season than the Wisconsin Badgers. Even with an undefeated record and the nation’s top scoring offense, Wisconsin stands a mere sixth in the initial BCS rankings.

The obvious knock on the Badgers is that they’ve played only one ranked opponent (Nebraska) and that was on their home field. Wisconsin gets their best chance to silence the doubters this Saturday, as they square off with No. 13 Michigan State in East Lansing.

Unfortunately for fans in Madison, even a win over the Spartans isn’t going to do much for Wisconsin’s BCS position. All five teams above them look to be headed for easy wins, and with the Badgers trailing even fifth-place Boise State by a noticeable margin (.8027 to .7708), there’s not much room to make up ground.

With the Badgers currently ranked fourth in both polls, there’s not much they can do to help themselves in that department. Until LSU knocks off Alabama (or the other way around) in eight days, there just isn’t going to be any room at the top for the Badgers to take over.

Once the LSU-Alabama result is in, Wisconsin has a reasonable chance at a Top 3 position (as long as they stay undefeated). Even then, though, it’ll probably take an Oklahoma loss to get the Badgers a national title shot.

Wisconsin has been one of the nation’s most dominant teams, and will probably finish undefeated in an underrated Big Ten. They deserve better than the Rose Bowl they appear headed for.

Unfortunately for the Badgers, they won’t have much control over their own destiny for what’s left of this season.