About the Time of the Year I Lose Interest

Normally, this is about the time I lose interest in the Wisconsin Badgers football season, I'm not going to lie. Their season is far from being an undefeated one, they have no hope at a BCS Bowl berth, and their Big Ten hopes are all but gone as well. In the past, this would have been about the time when I stopped trying to get up on Saturday mornings to watch Bucky and instead just wait for the bowl game.

This year, however, I feel a little more invested in the Badgers, despite their losing the last two games. As I've said in the past, I'm a little bandwagon-ish when it comes to their football team, really only caring about them when they are succeeding. It's a sports trait of mine that I'm looking to change, and I think this year's team may be helping me do so.

They started off 5-0, but have now lost their last two games against ranked opponents Ohio State and Iowa. They didn't even play that bad against the Buckeyes, in my opinion, and they hugn with the Hawkeyes for most of the game before losing 20-10. The Badgers are right in the middle between the good teams and the bad teams, but this year's team should have no problem finishing with a decent record and not needing to beat a team like Cal-Poly just to get a bowl bid.

Still, Saturday afternoon was a bit rough for the arm of quarterback Scott Tolzien, as he's come back down to earth a little bit throwing three interceptions. The stats weren't really flashy for the rest of the offense, either, but the Badgers still did enough to stay competitive until the very end. It wasn't their best performance, but they hung around with a top team in college football, which is a level they weren't even close to a year ago. It's an effort that has me wanting to root for this team no matter what their record may be.