Column: Wisconsin victory epitomizes down Big Ten year

INDIANAPOLIS — As the game clock expired, Nebraska Coach Bo Pelini and his Huskers trotted off the turf at Lucas Oil Stadium amid red and white confetti falling through the air. The ever-popular song “Jump Around” blared from the stadium speakers.

The House of Pain ballad, reveled by Wisconsin and its fans, was the last thing anyone associated with Nebraska football expected to hear last Saturday evening, and it will serve as the final haunting remnant of the Huskers’ 2012 season that ended with a stupefying 70-31 loss to the Badgers in the Big Ten Conference Championship Game.

No, that final score is not a typo or a misprint. Your eyes are not deceiving you.

Pelini could barely stomach the end result, which was apparent in his terse statements during his postgame press conference. The bright lights shone upon him like a criminal undergoing interrogation from police detectives.

The moderator was forced to nudge Pelini into giving an opening statement, indicative of the bewilderment still metaphorically crippling the fifth-year head coach. Then, succinctly, Pelini began to speak.

“I apologize to everybody associated with Nebraska football with how we coached, how we played, and it’s not acceptable,” Pelini said.

On the field, Wisconsin steamrolled its way to 539 rushing yards against a Nebraska defense that limited the Badgers to just 56 when the two teams met on Sept. 29 in Lincoln, Neb.

Explaining a 483-yard improvement in the rushing department two months after that initial contest, which Nebraska won, 30-27, is a mystery all its own.

Even Pelini, a man well-versed in defense, was lost for words when asked about that staggering difference.

“I don’t know,” Pelini said. “Obviously, we didn’t play well enough. We came unglued. I wish I had the answer, but I don’t.”

In fact, there may not even be an answer to the perplexing scenario, considering the level of parity in the Big Ten Conference this season.

The repugnant showing from the soon-to-be 14-team conference — Rutgers and Maryland will join during the 2014-15 season — ended with only three teams ranked in the final BCS poll, the highest of which was that same Nebraska team in the 16th slot.

To make matters worse, it marked only the second time in the BCS era, which began in 1998, that not a single Big Ten Conference team finished the season ranked in the top 10 of the final BCS poll.

Nebraska’s loss on Saturday allowed Wisconsin to become the first five-loss team to make a BCS bowl game.

It’s no wonder America is begging for the curtain to be closed on the gruesome act that was the Big Ten Conference in 2012.

It’ll get its wish soon.

­— ckillore@indiana.edu