Badgers open as underdogs despite UCLA QB injury
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The Wisconsin Badgers have one of the biggest games of the past four years this weekend when they take on the undefeated UCLA Bruins, who jumped all the way to No. 12 in the AP Top 25 this week.
Wisconsin, which was the first team out of the polls, is coming off its bye week, which will give the team a chance to get healthier before the big matchup on Saturday. The Badgers most recently beat the Michigan State Spartans 31-3 back in Week 5, improving to 4-1 on the season.
After that win, it looked like Wisconsin could get ranked, given that they were the first team out back then, but the Badgers fell two spots to the third team out of the AP Top 25. Wisconsin has wins over Western Illinois, Eastern Michigan, Penn State, and Michigan State this season.
That Penn State win had initially looked like a huge boost to the Badgers resume, as the Nittany Lions were 3-0 at the time and No. 13 in the AP Top 25. But Penn State has lost three straight Big Ten games, falling to 0-3, as they’ve been beaten by Wisconsin, Northwestern, and USC. Now, the latter two are ranked, but that does diminish the win on the Badgers’ resume.
Michigan State has also looked awful in Big Ten play. They were blown out by Nebraska and Wisconsin, and just lost to an Illinois team that lost to Purdue the week before and had to go to their backup quarterback to finish the game.
Nonetheless, Wisconsin has a big chance to get ranked here this weekend against UCLA. But this game will also come with a wrinkle, as the Bruins will be without star quarterback Nico Iamaleava, who suffered a serious knee injury against the Oregon Ducks this weekend. UCLA brought in quarterback Ty Dieffenbach in the second half, and he threw for 43 yards and a touchdown in the win.
Despite the quarterback news, UCLA enters Tuesday as a 2.5-point favorite after opening the week as three-point favorites. Additionally, the over/under is currently at 44.5 on FanDuel.
The Badgers will have to prepare for a new quarterback, and potentially two if the Bruins have packages for Madden Iamaleava as well, but they’re coming off a bye week before the cross-country travel.
The game will be played in primetime, with kickoff set for 4:30 p.m. local time (6:30 p.m. central) on NBC.
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