But what I was saying is that when you have Wisconsin's talent level, that's pretty much the ceiling. You can be competitive with the helmets, but you're not equal to them.
I agree with this. In the right years, with the right combination of factors, the Badgers could win conference titles and go to the Rose Bowl. In the current playoff system, I think that means that in the right years, with the right combination of factors, the Badgers could make it to the Final Four.
And that was where the frustration of Wisconsin fandom in the golden years came from: man, we could be awesome, but even then a 3-9 Michigan, or 6-7 Ohio State could beat us on a stupid broken play where they just had better athletes than we did. But when our coaching staff tried to overcome that, and went after the flashy guys, we just couldn't compete. Alvarez learned that the hard way 2000-2002. But the Badgers did that very successfully--they were the non-Big 2 team to beat in the Big Ten--for, as you say, 29 years. Basically, 1993-2021. There were down years, but there were a lot more up years. (To be clear, Penn State would probably disagree with this argument--my recollection, which is not well informed, is that Penn State has always had a higher ceiling, but particularly as things were falling apart around JoePa, they also took bigger dips. Honestly, that might be because they had to play Michigan and Ohio State more.)
Under the current rules, the Badgers just don't have the money to compete as an elite power; but as a fan, I want to be competitive with them, and I want other teams to fear us.
