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Maximize Your Odds of Winning with SportsLine Model and Our Top-Rated Picks!
Maximize Your Odds of Winning with SportsLine Model and Our Top-Rated Picks!
Understanding Public and Money
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This is a bad week to play Wisconsin. The Badgers suffered a humiliating loss to Illinois and the firing of a popular and successful coach. The Wildcats arguably played its best game of the season last week in a 17-7 loss at Penn State. Still, Northwestern is arguably the worst team in the Big Ten right now and Wisconsin is angry and hungry.
Some coaching dismissals can be seen a mile away. Not this one, with well-regarded Paul Chryst dumped Sunday by Wisconsin. The locker room will need time to process the firing, and six days might not be sufficient. The Badgers have been bulldozed by 31 and 24 points the past two Saturdays. Northwestern might seem a soft landing, but the Wildcats have won six of the last seven meetings at Ryan Field — against nearly always against a superior Badgers squad to this one. Though Northwestern is winless outright since the opening win over Nebraska, no defeat has happened by more than 10 points.