Not sure why you would be making these predictions so early - but since I like how they play out, I'm passing them along.
Mark Schlabach on ESPN.com has his college bowl predictions for next season up. (SERIOUSLY?!)
And he's got the Badgers in the Rose Bowl.
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Also, we're celebrating 10 years of BCS bowls. There are a lot of Top Ten lists on ESPN to commemorate.
They named their top ten coaches of the BCS era. Barry Alvarez comes in at #9:
The man who resurrected Wisconsin's floundering program became the first Big 10 coach to win back-to-back Rose Bowl games. The Badgers played in the Rose Bowl in each of the first two seasons under the BCS format, beating No. 5 UCLA 38-31 in 1999 and Stanford 17-9 in 2000. Alvarez inherited a program that had only five winning seasons in 27 years. In his third season in 1993, he led Wisconsin to a 21-16 win over UCLA in the 1994 Rose Bowl, the Badgers' first New Year's Day bowl victory.
They also have the top ten BCS Bowl Performances and Ron Dayne vs UCLA in the 1999 Rose Bowl comes in at #3:
While "The Great Dayne's" NFL career has mostly sputtered, he was one of college football's all-time greats -- his 6,397 career rushing yards is an NCAA Division I-A record. His performance against UCLA -- 27 carries for 246 yards and four touchdowns in a 38-31 victory -- set the stage for his winning the 1999 Heisman Trophy. His rushing total remains the most accumulated in a BCS bowl game. The following season, he rushed for 200 yards in another Rose Bowl victory over Stanford and won another game MVP award, which means Dayne owns two of the top three rushing totals in BCS bowl games history (the 200 yards being tied for third with Vince Young).
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That same 1999 Rose Bowl was also named the #9 best BCS bowl game:
In the first year the Rose Bowl was a part of the BCS, Wisconsin jumped on the broad shoulders of bruising running back Ron Dayne and upset the high-scoring Bruins. The Badgers (11-1) were a 10-point underdog and reveled in saying, "We told you so" as they celebrated with the sun setting behind the San Gabriel Mountains. Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez said too many people undersold his Badgers all season long. Dayne romped for 246 rushing yards and tied a modern-day Rose Bowl record with four touchdowns. All told, eight Rose Bowl records were set or tied in the game. UCLA, which looked to be in line to play for the national championship until being upset by Miami on Dec. 5, pulled within 31-28 in the third quarter on Jermaine Lewis' 10-yard touchdown run. But Wisconsin stretched it back out to 38-28 with 14:08 to play in the fourth quarter on Jamar Fletcher's 46-yard interception return for a touchdown. UCLA quarterback Cade McNown was trying to hit tailback DeShaun Foster deep down the sideline when Fletcher made the defensive play of the game for the Badgers. Fletcher also snuffed out a fake punt by the Bruins midway through the fourth quarter.
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