Not too High...Not too Low

With just two more weeks before the season officially kicks off in Las Vegas, Bucky finally knows what the world thinks going into the season. After the Associated Press poll release today Wisconsin moves into number 12 in both polls.

A few weeks ago the Coaches Poll was released for the first time this season, and Bucky came in at number 12. Apparently the journalists didn't disagree with the coaches too much on this one; putting Bucky in the exact same spot.

In both polls they also selected Alabama as number one, and Ohio State as number two. Not much of a surprise that the Rolling Tide would be number one after winning the national title and returning a lot of starters including a Heisman Trophy winner. The Buckeyes also return many key starters and will feature a defense that may be better than last season.

In fact, both polls include the same elevan teams in front of the Badgers. Not necessarily the same order, but the same teams at least.

So what does this mean for Bucky? Not much in terms of high expectations. Number twelve is by no means a high ranking, but it is not a low ranking either. It just means that coming into this season Wisconsin is expected to be the middle of the pack in terms of the best teams in the country.

But the great Badger teams never had high expectations coming into the season. At the beginning of the 1998 season Wisconsin only came in at number twenty in the preseason poll. The Buckeyes sat at the top on week one. By the end of the season it was Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl, not the Buckeyes, and Bucky finished at number six to end the season. After defeating UCLA in the Rose Bowl.

A year later Bucky was slated at number 10 in the preseason poll, but dropped all the way down to number twenty after the loss to Cincinatti. Then low and behold Wisconsin was back in the Rose Bowl at the end of the season and following that victory over Stanford...Bucky finished at number four.

The next year brings us to our point on why preseason polls really don't matter, but they do. Kind of an oximoron right. In 2000, the Badgers were ranked number four in the preseason poll; including one selection for number one. At the end of the season Bucky finished at number 23, and lost four games in the process.

The problem with preseason polls is that they really are just a guess. On many occasions teams do not gain the respect they deserve, or get to much when they don't deserve it. The truth is that polls are just a prediction as to what the world would be like if everything broke the way it was supposed to. Nobody got hurt, and nobody got upset. But this is football, and that's not the way it's going to be.

In terms of where you would like to be in the polls, the middle is just fine. You aren't down on yourself for being number 25, but you don't have the pressure of a preseason top five. The best seasons in Badger history have come when the national media was looking the other way. And maybe the next one may just be around the corner.