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Wisconsin Football: Game vs. Purdue canceled

By Christian Borman

iOct 23, 2020; Madison, Wisconsin, USA; Wisconsin Badgers head coach Pau Chryst walks on the field during warmups prior to the game against the Illinois Fighting Illini at Camp Randall Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports
iOct 23, 2020; Madison, Wisconsin, USA; Wisconsin Badgers head coach Pau Chryst walks on the field during warmups prior to the game against the Illinois Fighting Illini at Camp Randall Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Wisconsin football game against Purdue this Saturday has been canceled.

We are going to have to continue to wait to see Wisconsin football take the field. There was some optimism that the Badgers may have been able to play the game, but that is apparently no longer the case. The game this Saturday against the Purdue Boilermakers has been canceled. An update was provided on uwbadgers.com as well as on the Wisconsin football team’s Twitter account.

The number of cases continues to rise and now stands at 27 total cases. This will force Wisconsin to keep all football activities to remain paused. With this game canceled, the next game to look forward to is the Michigan game on November 14th, which is scheduled to kick off at 6:30 PM.

This cancelation will really put Wisconsin’s backs against the wall. According to the Big Ten, teams will be allowed to miss two games and still be eligible for the Big Ten Championship game in December. With this, Wisconsin will no longer be able to cancel a game and remain eligible.

This is also a bit of a disadvantage for Wisconsin because they could still go 6-0 and qualify for the Big Ten Championship Game, but still not make it if Purdue goes 7-0. They have already defeated Iowa and Illinois, two Big Ten West teams. The chances of them going 7-0 aren’t very high, but theoretically, they could do it, and if they do there will be nothing Wisconsin can do about it. They will need Purdue to lose at least one game if they want to go to Indy and play for a shot at getting into the College Football Playoff.

Another thing we need to ask ourselves is if the Badgers would go 6-0 in the regular season and win the Big Ten, would the CFP committee allow them in? They would be a team that played in just 7 games and really their only notable win would probably be Ohio State. Would that be enough to keep another one-loss SEC or ACC team out?

It would be hard to say, especially if more teams have to cancel games due to COVID. But this is where the Big Ten really made a mistake. Waiting too long and jamming as many games into a schedule as possible, not allowing time for any makeup games. This could be the demise for a few teams in the Big Ten, not just Wisconsin if the teams are hit hard by the virus.

It’s a bleak outlook, but it is still technically possible.