College Gameday’s own Lee Corso made a bold prediction involving Wisconsin Football the weekend before the season starts.
The buzz surrounding Wisconsin Football is already deafening, and it just grew louder thanks to ESPN’s Lee Corso, who predicted Wisconsin not only make the College Football Playoff this year but says the Badgers will win the National Championship over the Clemson Tigers.
There is college football on this weekend but the majority of teams start their games next week. That didn’t stop ESPN from running their own week zero version of College Gameday and allowing Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, and Desmond Howard to get together to make their conference championship and College Football Playoff predictions.
All three personalities had Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship game, but only Corso had Wisconsin winning it and making the Playoff. Howard had the Badgers losing to his alma mater Michigan, and Herbstreit picked Penn State to win.
Corso chose the Badgers with confidence to take down Penn State in Indianapolis.
Wisconsin is a Playoff contender without a doubt. All three personalities on College Gameday have the Badgers in Indianapolis knocking on the door of the Playoff. The last two Big Ten Champions were left out of the Playoff, but that’s very unlikely to happen again with how strong the conference is.
Corso picking the Badgers to make the Playoff isn’t what’s so bold about this clip. Corso believes Wisconsin is good enough to take down Clemson on its way to a national title.
He references Wisconsin’s offensive line several times throughout this clip and gives credit to its reputation of trotting out great defenses. Although the defense might be in for a step back compared to recent years, the offensive line will be as good as any we’ve seen in all of college football.
If Corso’s prediction comes true it’ll be mostly thanks to the offensive line. Football is a game often won in the trenches and there aren’t many teams in America capable of going toe-to-toe with the Badgers’ offensive line unit. Clemson could be the exception. Clemson has one of, if not the best defensive lines in the country. If the two programs meet in the national championship game we’ll be in for some high-quality football. The unstoppable force will absolutely meet the immovable object. I’m just not sure which group of linemen is which in this scenario.
When the going gets tough, Wisconsin will overpower and out will opponents with its offensive line. It’s only difficult to imagine the Badgers as national champions because it’s never happened before. I applaud Corso for going out on a limb with his pick.
There is certainly a pathway to get there for Wisconsin. Corso is just the latest to speak it out on what is the largest platform in college football.