The Wait is Over: The Badgers Head Back to Pasadena

It sometimes seems like a distant memory. The day that Ron Dayne led the Badgers to their third Rose Bowl victory in a decade, and Wisconsin had moved into one of the elite teams in the Big Ten. Ten years later a new group of Badgers will get to make the same move again.

On Sunday evening what many people thought would happen became a reality. The Badgers received the official bid to be the Big Ten representative in the Rose Bowl. Taking on the TCU Horned Frogs in what is known as "the grand daddy of them all."

In a season that has been about automatic qualifiers and non-automatic qualifiers the Badgers will have the opportunity to stop the BCS buster. With a record of 12-0 the Horned Frogs very well could have been playing for a national championship this season, but with victories this weekend Oregon and Auburn will receive that honor. As a consolation prize TCU will get to play the Badgers.

Not much a consolation prize though. Wisconsin this season featured what has become one of the best offenses in the country. Not to mention an offensive line that very well could play on Sunday in the NFL. Then throw in the stable of running backs that Wisconsin features, and a quarterback with a 76% completion percentage and you have a team worth challenging TCU.

Teams like the Horned Frogs live for this opportunity. To take on the big boys, and knock them off. Fresno State has done it to the Badgers in the past. Boise State has done it on the grand stage against teams like Oklahoma. Now it will be TCU's chance to show they can play with the "big boys." A challenge they will either revel in, or perhaps wish they never wanted. Only time will tell.