Badgers win in Orange Bowl didn't impress AP voters enough

By Dave Heller
Published

Wisconsin finished off its 2017 season in great fashion -- beating No. 11 Miami in the Orange Bowl, which just happened to be the home stadium of the Hurricanes.

The Badgers didn't make the college football playoff, but they were one of four teams to win 13 games.



However, when the final Associated Press top-25 poll came out after the national championship, the Badgers found themselves having dropped one spot from the previous AP poll, from No. 6 to No. 7.

All four of the playoff teams remained in the top four, in some order. Ohio State, which beat USC in its bowl game, remained at No. 5. Meanwhile, unbeaten Central Florida leapt passed Wisconsin and into the No. 6 spot.

It's hard for Wisconsin fans to complain about that, perhaps, since the Badgers were criticized during their undefeated season for not exactly playing a tough schedule (only one of UW's regular-season opponents finished in the top 25; two of UCF's did). UCF received four first-place votes in the final poll. Wisconsin received first-place votes only in Week 14 during the season, when it garnered 10. (Side note: in his final ballot, Soren Petro had UCF at No. 10 and Auburn, which finished 10-4 and lost to the Golden Knights, at No. 8. OK then.)

In the list you'll see below, if Wisconsin is ranked at No. 6, that voter -- with four exceptions -- did not have UCF in its top five. Parrish Alford (5), Bob Asmussen (5), Kirk Bohls (5) and Dave Reardon (2) all had UCF in the top 5 and Clemson at No. 7, with the exception of Alford who had Clemson at No. 8 and Penn State at No. 7.

Ah yes, Penn State.

Four AP voters had the 12-2 Nittany Lions ranked higher than the Badgers:

- Sammy Batten: Penn State 6, UCF 7, Wisconsin 8. Worse yet, Batten dropped the Badgers two spots from his previous ballot.

- Matt Brown: UFC 5, Ohio State 6, Penn State 7, Wisconsin 8

- Matt McCoy: Penn State 6, Wisconsin 7 (he also had Ohio State 4, Clemson 5 and UCF 8)

- Sam McKewon: Penn State 6, UCF 7, Wisconsin 8.

On the flip side, six voters did have the Badgers in their top five, including Jonny Miller who had Wisconsin at its highest ranking -- No. 3.

Here's the complete look at the final ballots along with the previous one for comparison: