If the ACC-Big Ten Challenge has proven anything, it's that the Big Ten has a long way to go to catch the ACC on the hardcourt.

Would the Big Ten fare any better on the gridiron?

Here are the matchups -- and predictions -- based on the Sagarin Ratings. By the way, Sagarin's conference ratings have the ACC as No. 1 and the Big Ten as No. 5, with the Big 12, SEC and Big...

 If you want to win a friendly wager with a buddy regarding the Wisconsin Badgers men's hockey team, pose this question:

 Who leads the team in plus-minus, which measures goals scored vs. goals allowed while the player is on the ice?

 Leading scorer Jamie McBain? Nope. The junior defenseman and assistant captain actually has the worst rating at...

 One of the more interesting developments at the Paradise Jam in St. Thomas was freshman guard Rob Wilson's courage driving at Connecticut's 7-foot-3 center Hasheem Thabeet.
 
 Wilson was just following conventional wisdom that one of two things will happen when you drive at a great shot-blocker like Thabeet. One, you'll get your shot blocked. Two,...

 The Big Ten Conference is probably fortunate it doesn't have more cases on its hands of "bowl burnout" among fans who are tired of the same bowl destination.

 That's a legitimate issue with the Wisconsin Badgers football team, which will likely be heading to Florida for the fifth straight year and to Orlando for the third time in the last...

 Opinions and thoughts after arriving back in Madison from watching the University of Wisconsin men's basketball team win two games and lose one at the Paradise Jam tournament at wonderfully tropic St. Thomas:

- The Badgers face difficult nonconference games at Virginia Tech and Marquette and at home against Texas yet this season, but they won't face a tougher opponent...

I just got done watching the television broadcast of the Wisconsin Badgers men's basketball team's 74-72 win over Virginia Tech.

A couple of things stuck out after seeing the game a second time:

- I definitely did not do Hokies senior forward A.D. Vassallo's tying 3-pointer justice. Not only did he have UW sophomore swingman Tim Jarmusz in his face, Vassallo...

ST. THOMAS, U.S. Virgin Islands -- I had just sat down for breakfast at a beach-front cafe at the tournament hotel Sunday morning when Kristen Robinson and Sarah Robinson walked past me in Badger red bikinis. I burst out laughing when I noticed they had embroidered "Badgers'' on their bikini bottoms. I asked who made the bikinis and they smiled and said, in unison, "We...

 All you need to know about why Wisconsin Badgers football coach Bret Bielema probably prefers the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando, Fla., over the Insight Bowl in Tempe, Ariz., is one word:

 Recruiting.

 As far as Bielema is concerned, I'm sure, there is no such thing as going to Florida too many years in a row for bowl games.

 This would be the fifth...

ST.  THOMAS -- A four-hour snorkeling trip was a highlight Saturday for the University of Wisconsin men's basketball team, which got an off day from the Paradise Jam tournament here.

Reports from the team about the trip included the Badgers seeing a barracuda right after they got into the water. For what it's worth, junior guard Jason Bohannon also reported seeing, ``some...

I decided Tuesday night that I was going to get a look at the Wisconsin Badgers women's basketball team from atop -- about 15 or 20 rows up the lower bowl of the Kohl Center, just to the east of the midcourt line behind press row.

I've always wondered why basketball teams don't use a "coach in the sky'' approach to game coaching. Sitting above the floor gives...