Entering his fourth year in the University of Wisconsin football program, junior linebacker Jack Cichy has never played a down against Michigan. Or Michigan State. Or Ohio State, for that matter. Cichy’s not alone among the Badgers. As the Big Ten Conference expanded, aligned and then realigned over the past five years, first adding Nebraska and then Maryland and Rutgers, its scheduling approach kept changing and most of the Big Ten’s traditional powers somehow got rotated off UW’s schedule. UW hasn’t played Michigan since 2010 or Michigan State since 2012. Its last regularly scheduled game with Ohio State was in 2013, though it did meet the Buckeyes in the forgettable Big Ten Championship Game in 2014. Playing Maryland and Rutgers in East-West divisional crossover games the past two years was good for UW’s bottom line — it went 4-0 against the newbies, winning by a combined score of 168-41 — but for a UW roster largely filled with players from traditional Big Ten country, something was missing. “I never grew up watching Rutgers or Maryland play,” Cichy said. “I grew up watching the Big Ten. I remember in high school turning on games and it would be (former UW quarterback)…
Continue Reading: Tom Oates: After years of soft schedules, Wisconsin faces loaded Big Ten slate
