FanHouse Wisconsin

They got their bachelor's degree from Florida and their master's from LSU, but Saturday night Southern California handed Ohio State a brand-new degree: the Doctor of Failosophy. Yeesh. What a curbstomping. If you really need me to tell you what to do with the Buckeyes now, I'll be happy to do so, as long as you tell me something first: Who turned the computer on for you?

Don't just sell, pards; eject. There are at least two teams in the Big Ten playing better football than the Buckeyes right now.

I saw a distant early warning last Saturday, and it's wasn't the Ohio-OSU game. It was the fact that South Dakota State beat Youngstown State almost as badly as the Buckeyes did. Sure, Jim Tressel rested his starters when the game was in hand and probably didn't want to show up his former employer too badly. Even if Tressel had rested his starters for the whole game, they ought to be able to out-perform a squad that was playing Division II ball four years ago. You've got problems on offense, Coach, and they're not all in Beanie Wells's shoes.

So where does the savvy investor in the non-existent football futures market go now?

It's No. 1 vs. No. 2 as Wisconsin takes on Ohio State today at 4 p.m. ET on CBS, but that's not what makes it a big game. The polls in college basketball don't mean a thing, but what does mean something is that the conference championship and a top seed in the tournament are on the line.

Ohio State would clinch the Big Ten with a win. A Wisconsin win only evens the Badgers in the standings with the Buckeyes, but it would give Wisconsin the season sweep and the likely top seed in the Big Ten Tournament. And more important than that, the winner of this game will have a very good case for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, while a No. 2 seed would be the best-case scenario for the loser.

All of that is why this is the hottest ticket in Ohio State basketball history. Seats that normally cost $14 are going for $125, and $26 seats are going for $400.

The key, I think, will be Wisconsin's outside shooting. For much of the season that's been the Badgers' biggest weakness, but they're doing it well recently. If they hit their shots from downtown, the Badgers will beat the Buckeyes again. But I don't think they'll hit enough of them.

Prediction: Ohio State 70, Wisconsin 60

Kelvin Sampson deserves some coach of the year consideration for the job he's doing at Indiana. I'm already on the record as saying Indiana is a Top 16 team, and tonight the Hoosiers had their best game yet, beating Wisconsin 71-66 to end the Badgers' winning streak at 17.

Although Alando Tucker scored 23 points, Sampson had Indiana running a zone that gave Wisconsin fits in the second half. If Wisconsin has a weakness, it's that Tucker and Kammron Taylor are a two-man team. Taylor chipped in 15, but no one else contributed much offensively.

Thanks to the luck of the Big Ten schedule draw, Indiana only has to play the conference's two best teams, Wisconsin and Ohio State, once each. Those two games are behind the Hoosiers now, and even with a hiccup against Illinois, Indiana has just two losses and still has an outside chance at competing for the Big Ten regular season crown.

More likely, they'll finish third behind Wisconsin and Ohio State. But that's still plenty good enough to ensure that Indiana is a Tournament team.