Wisconsin Football takes a tumble down the AP rankings

Wisconsin Football is down eight spots in this week’s AP Top 25 rankings.

Wisconsin’s College Football Playoff dreams were officially blown to smithereens when the Badgers were felled by Michigan in brutal fashion on Saturday night at the Big House.

To add insult to injury, they took the kind of steep fall in this week’s AP rankings that you would expect after such an ugly loss, though remaining in the Top 25 could be considered a victory in and of itself. Wisconsin will still be ranked this weekend against Illinois, but just barely.

The AP voters knocked the Badgers down eight spots from No. 15 to No. 23, with four other Big Ten teams now ranked ahead of them.

With then-No. 2 Georgia’s shocking blowout loss to LSU in Death Valley, Ohio State had an opportunity to climb up another spot from No. 3 and did so after taking down Minnesota 30-14 in Columbus. The Buckeyes rode to victory on the right arm of quarterback Dwayne Haskins, who threw for 412 yards and 3 touchdowns. Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is still the front-runner to take home the Heisman in the opinion of most, but Haskins is breathing down his neck right now as his lights-out play continues to lead Ohio State down a road that appears increasingly likely to lead to the Playoff.

The Buckeyes will be road-tripping to West Lafayette to take on Purdue this weekend.

Michigan jumped up six spots to No. 6 this week after disposing of Wisconsin. Unlike the Badgers, the Wolverines still have a legitimate chance at a Playoff appearance, but they are in the midst of a brutal stretch of games and probably must win each remaining contest, concluding with the looming showdown with Ohio State in their last game of the regular season.

Up next for Michigan is another difficult test, this time against their in-state rival Michigan State this weekend in East Lansing, with the Spartans looking awfully dangerous right now.

Speaking of the Spartans, they crushed the Playoff hopes of Penn State in what turned out to be one of the best games of the day. Michigan State left Happy Valley with a thrilling 21-17 victory after quarterback Brian Lewerke’s 25-yard touchdown pass to Felton Davis with 19 seconds remaining, and rejoined the Top 25 this week as a result, coming in at No. 24.

The Nittany Lions fell from No. 8 to No. 18 after that devastating loss. Running back Miles Sanders certainly did his part by rushing for 162 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries, but his team once again choked in the fourth quarter and couldn’t hold off a Michigan State rally. Penn State will have a good shot to get back on track against a struggling Indiana team in Bloomington this weekend.

Iowa also re-entered the rankings this week at No. 19 after waxing the Hoosiers 42-16 on their home turf behind a career day for quarterback Nate Stanley, who racked up 320 yards and 6 touchdowns. After Alex Hornibrook’s nightmarish outing against Michigan, I’d imagine most Badger fans would be pretty content to have the Wisconsin native Stanley under center instead right about now.

Wisconsin is still in the driver’s seat of the Big Ten West at the moment, but the Hawkeyes look like the better team at this point and could make this race very interesting down the stretch and potentially steal the Big Ten Championship game berth from the Badgers. They will be looking to keep the momentum rolling this weekend at home against Maryland.

Wisconsin also took a steep fall in the Amway Coaches Poll, going from No. 10 to No. 19.

All stats courtesy of ESPN.com