Lindy's picks Badgers 11th

Picked up my first college football preview magazine of the year, which has got to be a record for the earliest I've ever bought one of these things. As regular readers of this blog know, even though the Internet has an abundance of free information on any subject imaginable, including college sports, I still prefer to pick up these big print magazines as I've been doing for the past 20 years.

The magazine is Lindy's, which picks Wisconsin to finish 11th in the nation, second in the Big Ten behind Ohio State. Here's what they say:

Old School Still Leads to New Year's
Bret Bielema has established himself as a coach, winning 21 games in his first two seasons and taking the Badgers to consecutive New Year's Day bowls. Wisconsin has become one of the country's most consistent programs and something of an anachronism. Look, how cute, the Badgers still use a blocking fullback. But there's really nothing cute about Wisconsin, which grinds and grinds ... and has won at least nine games in seven of the past 10 years.

THE GOOD NEWS: The Badgers are back to pounding the opposition with one of the best sets of backs in the country -- P.J. Hill, Lance Smith and Zach Brown. If the quarterback situation can get settled, the defense should allow Wisconsin to contend for the Big Ten title.

THE BAD NEWS: The quarterback situation IS unsettled. It was assuemd that Kansas State transfer Allan Evridge would win the job. We'll see. Dustin Sherer is the other option. It's no one's fault, but injuries have plagued this team the past two years, including this spring.

OUR CALL: Asking Wisconsin to get past Ohio State for the Big Ten title is probably too much. But winning 10 isn't out of the question if the Badgers can overcome a tough early conference schedule.

Not too much to argue with there, although I don't quite get the blocking fullback comment. While it's clear traditional fullbacks like Chris Pressley aren't on everyone's roster anymore, lots of teams still use them. Too much Spread on the writer's brain, methinks.

I'll be posting other nuggets from Lindy's in the days ahead, and also keep a running average of where national media outlets are picking the Badgers. We'll stick with print media for now, given the fluidity of Internet predictions, then pool some web-based picks near the end of the summer.