With last year's BYU football status change to independence, the Cougars opened up a lot of interesting possibilities, and tougher games. Ole Miss and Texas were two scheduled games last year. Boise State, Hawaii, Georgia Tech and Notre Dame are all on the schedule this season. And now, rumors have been tossed around that BYU and Wisconsin are on the verge of a two-year series starting in 2013.
The Big 10 powerhouse would add another BCS school to the list of tougher schedules and primetime games to be played on BYU's 7-year contract with ESPN.
With a myriad of changes occurring in the college football world, a game against the Badgers, and especially a win, would increase the chances of the Cougars re-entry into the upper echelon of college football's greatest.
BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall has been confident in his assertion that his team is prepared to make the next leap forward in their quality of play.
“There is another level that we are anxious to pursue,' Mendenhall said in the second annual BYU football media day held in June. 'While we have been in the top 25 for five of the last six years, I would like to be in the top 10. We have reached one kind of summit, now its time to look around and see that there is something more to achieve.”
That something else would be competing for a spot in the new playoff system. If BYU wants to secure a spot, they would most likely need to go undefeated, possibly even two years in a row, beating BCS-caliber teams. Playing the Wisconsin Badgers, competitors in the last two Rose Bowls, will help the prestige grow.
If the series goes through, both the Cougars and the Badgers have an available slot on September 13 in 2013, so the plug-ins are relatively easy.
The groundwork is ready. The national stage is set. It's ready to go.