The Wisconsin Badgers are one of the best teams in college football right now. They're 8-0 and ranked No. 9 in the country, and with a few games left on the docket, none against ranked opponents, there's a good chance the Badgers finish the regular season undefeated.
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And if they do that, they'd find themselves in the Big Ten championship game, likely against Ohio State. And if they can beat Ohio State, which they'd certainly have a shot at doing, there's no way Wisconsin could be left out of the College Football Playoffs, right?
An undefeated Big Ten champion Wisconsin would seem like a no-brainer for the Playoff, that is unless you ask Brad Edwards of ESPN — who doesn't think that would be a lock.
Recently speaking on The Russillo Show, Edwards wasn't confident an undefeated Badgers team would make the playoffs.
"I don't think it's a lock."
-@JBradEdwards thinks it's possible the @CFBPlayoff Committee could leave out an undefeated, Big 10 champion Wisconsin at the end of the season 👀 pic.twitter.com/ZwnnjQVhDm
— Carlin vs. Joe (@CarlinvsJoe) October 31, 2017
That seems kind of crazy but the interesting thing about Edward's thoughts is that there is some logic to Wisconsin missing out on the Playoff.
The current No. 1 and No. 2 teams respectively, Georgia and Alabama, will likely meet in the SEC title game. The winner of that game will likely be undefeated and thus a lock for the CFP. The loser will have to sweat it out a bit, but if its even remotely a close game there's a decent chance a one-loss Alabama or one-loss Georgia still finds a way into the Playoff.
Notre Dame, Clemson, Oklahoma, and Ohio State all currently have one loss. A win over Ohio State would give the Badgers the edge over the Buckeyes, but then it would come down to a strength of schedule argument for Wisconsin, and unfortunately, the Badgers haven't played a ranked team yet this season.
Do the math and Edwards is right, there's a decent chance that Wisconsin could win out this season and still not make the Playoff.
