You Can Just Enjoy This One

With wins like this, there’s often a lot of foresight.

What does this mean for the coaching staff, that appeared to be in jeopardy as the season went on and losses piled up? Are there enough wins down the stretch for bowl eligibility? Illinois, Michigan State and Purdue don’t look so good? What abou-

Stop, for a moment.

Indiana just beat Wisconsin. In football.

INDIANA. BEAT. WISCONSIN.

No matter what that’s a huge Big Ten name brand that just went out and hired one of the best (well, apparent best) coaches in the entire sport after a few down years. Don’t care about the quarterback or running back situation. Hoosiers over Badgers.

If you have questions about the program’s longterm viability under this specific staff there is an entire week between the next game and this one for you to ponder them. You, right now, have an opportunity to just enjoy a win.

I implore you to take it.

College football is about to get extremely strange. Texas at Auburn. UCLA at Rutgers. Oregon in the damn Big Ten. It’s all gonna feel weird and, importantly, it’s gonna be more difficult to get those six wins.

The Pac-12 is dead. A century-plus old athletic conference absolutely full of tradition is no more thanks in no small part to the outside influence of broadcast dollars. Washington fans don’t care that much to play Wisconsin but apparently TV networks think it’ll appeal to a national audience

Rivalry matchups that people care about are soon to be no more. Oregon-Oregon State, Washington-Washington State and Cal vs. either one of USC or UCLA are in peril.

This season is their last hurrah, the final chance for fans of those programs and those who truly care about what makes college football such a special sport to enjoy them. On a national basis, it’s been a very fun season thus far.

Which is why Indiana vs. Wisconsin matters.

We’re two of the original Big Ten schools. Wisconsin has a long tradition on the football field like Indiana has ours on the hardwood. These matchups have been played for decades.

There was that time Gerry DiNardo beat the Badgers and then did literally nothing else of note during his time in Bloomington. Bret Bielema using Indiana to prove a point to the computers by scoring as many points as he could and getting that infamous “83-20” scoreboard photo.

Wisconsin didn’t let up in the years that followed, typically scoring in the 40s and 50s against Indiana. Not exactly fun times in our collective memory.

So it is such a joy to own a 2-0 record against them in the past two meetings. Indiana beat Wisconsin with a second string quarterback in Madison three years ago and managed to somehow pull off the win today.

It feels great, cathartic even. The games mean more for a reason.

It’s not gonna matter as much to us if UCLA, USC, Washington or Oregon beat Indiana by many scores and the Hoosiers get them back. It won’t generate the same feelings of relief throughout the fanbase because these games mattered more.

So before you start to project the long-term potential of this program with this staff, worry about Michigan State or turning your eyes to basketball season please do us, and yourself, a favor.

Enjoy this one.