Updated Apr. 24, 2012 -- Note: This is the projected depth chart. Not official.

OFFENSE

DEFENSE

SPECIAL TEAMS

* - Denotes player is currently injured

Here's your 2012 Big Ten Tournament bracket:

(Click on the bracket for a larger view.)

(Courtesy Big Ten.)

SBNation is launching its own YouTube channel and it all starts Thursday.

Personalities like Bomani Jones from Around The Horn and Amy K. Nelson will have their own shows on the channel which will be based out of SBNation's ridiculously impressive TV studios.

In addition to Bomani Jones and Amy K. Nelson, you'll also get a solid dose of college football on the Shutdown Fullback, which will star Spencer Hall from Every Day Should Be Saturday and Jason Kirk, SBNation's college football editor.

Here's a trailer for their show:

It all starts Thursday. Subscribe to the channel here!

Wisconsin Athletic Director Barry Alvarez released a statement Wednesday night in the wake of the allegations of sexual assault by former senior associate athletic director John Chadima on a male student.

The word "alcohol" is notably absent in his statement and while Alvarez acknowledges he knew about "similar gatherings" in the past, he claims he didn't know about this one. How convenient.

Here's the statement with my reaction following:

I am saddened by the allegations that have resulted in the resignation of John Chadima. John worked for the University of Wisconsin Department of Athletics for 22 years, many of them under my direct supervision. He was a trusted and valued employee and someone I relied upon. To my knowledge and, as the findings of the review team show, this was an isolated allegation. That being said, it represents highly inappropriate behavior and I am disappointed in John’s conduct.

I am pleased that the review team found that our athletic department staff acted appropriately and swiftly in reporting the allegation. We have stressed to our employees the importance of reporting any allegations or incidents that involve staff members or occur in our facilities and I am glad the proper action was taken. I also commend our staff for their continued support of the individual who brought this allegation forward.

This allegation occurred during a gathering of athletic department staff. I am aware that similar gatherings have taken place in the past; however, contrary to the findings of the incident review, neither Sean Frazier nor I was aware that this year’s event had taken place until hearing about this allegation. The gathering in question was John’s way to recognize many of our staff who work behind the scenes and are not invited to other bowl-related events. I did not know that some of our student employees were involved. That is unacceptable and our staff will be educated about the inappropriateness of such behavior.

Considering the alleged presence of alcohol purchased with donor money and underage students at the party (not "gathering"), I simply can't comprehend how Alvarez -- or whoever wrote it -- released a statement without addressing this secondary issue -- you know, the issue that directly involves Alvarez.

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Below is the report from Judge Patrick Fiedler's independent review team on allegations of misconduct by senior associate athletic director John Chadima.

READ: John Chadima Rose Bowl Incident Report
(If you have trouble opening the document, right click and "Save As" to your computer.)

In the report, Chadima's actions are referred to as "sexual assault" and the findings are quite disturbing.

The report alleges that while in Los Angeles for the Rose Bowl, Chadima threw a party "for the staff and student employees who worked 'behind the scenes' in support of the football team," as he has done before at least the last four bowl games. This party took place Dec. 30 in Chadima's suite at the J.W. Marriott in downtown Los Angeles where the Badger football team and traveling party stayed during their trip.

At the conclusion of the party, Chadima allegedly asked one student to stay in his room as everyone else left. The student was a male described as "John Doe" in the report. The report says Chadima allegedly accused the student of being gay before he "reached over and removed Doe's pants belt and then inserted his hand inside Doe's pants on his genitals."

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Those of us who vote in the BlogPoll Top 25 participated in an early 2012 version and the Badgers ended up No. 14.

Apparently, I'm not giving Wisconsin enough credit. I ranked UW No. 18 and ended up with the second lowest "biased score", which measures the difference between where a team is ranked compared to where the blogger representing that team ranked them.

Here's my full ballot (and yes, I have Purdue ranked):

Bucky's 5th Quarter Ballot - Week 17

Rank	Team	Delta
1	USC Trojans	6
2	LSU Tigers	2
3	Oregon Ducks	--
4	Georgia Bulldogs	11
5	Arkansas Razorbacks	--
6	Alabama Crimson Tide	-5
7	West Virginia Mountaineers	9
8	Oklahoma Sooners	13
9	Michigan Wolverines	3
10	South Carolina Gamecocks	1
11	Ohio St. Buckeyes	--
12	TCU Horned Frogs	2
13	Florida St. Seminoles	9
14	Kansas St. Wildcats	3
15	Nebraska Cornhuskers	10
16	Stanford Cardinal	-10
17	Michigan St. Spartans	-8
18	Wisconsin Badgers	-8
19	Virginia Tech Hokies	--
20	Notre Dame Fighting Irish	--
21	Texas Longhorns	--
22	Clemson Tigers	1
23	Boise St. Broncos	-15
24	Auburn Tigers	--
25	Purdue Boilermakers	--
Dropouts: Oklahoma St. Cowboys, Baylor Bears, Houston Cougars, Southern Miss. Golden Eagles, Northern Illinois Huskies

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings "

For the full Top 25 and a breakdown of the poll, click here.

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If you're looking to get started in sports with a social media job, our friends at Comcast have a great opportunity for you.

Have you ever wanted a shot at winning your dream job in sports social media? Here’s your chance – XFINITY is launching a nationwide contest to find the next sports social media star to serve as the voice of XFINITY behind-the-scenes at the biggest sporting events nationwide in 2012.

The contest is called "Xfinity Presents: The Ultimate Sports Social Media Job" and runs from January 13^th through March 25^th. The winner will receive a one-year salary, all the electronics for the ultimate sports pad, and will have the opportunity to share thoughts, insights, and content with fans nationwide via the @XFINITYSports Twitter handle on a daily basis. This is truly a dream job opportunity for anyone looking to make a name for themselves in the world of sports and social media.

Here’s how it works:

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Happy birthday to us.

On January 12, 2009, I officially launched Bucky's 5th Quarter on the Blogger network. About a month later, we joined SBNation and the rest is history.

It's hard to believe it's been three years and I can't believe how much we have accomplished in that time.

The site started as a one man operation. Today, we have four editors and eight total contributors bringing you the latest Badger news every day.

In an age where journalism is evolving faster than anyone can realize, I believe Bucky's 5th Quarter represents that change more than any other Badgers news source. We walk the fine line between straight reporting and blogging, but I believe that is to our credit and not our fault. If you haven't noticed, newspapers are starting to revolutionize their content to mimic the blogosphere and not the other way around. We were ahead of the game in game analysis, daily link compilations and, maybe most importantly, Twitter.

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Below is my final BlogPoll Top 25 ballot of the 2011 season. There will be a 2012 poll next week looking ahead to next season.

Bucky's 5th Quarter Ballot - Week 16

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama Crimson Tide	1
2	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	1
3	Oregon Ducks	2
4	LSU Tigers	-3
5	Arkansas Razorbacks	1
6	Stanford Cardinal	-2
7	USC Trojans	1
8	Boise St. Broncos	-1
9	Michigan St. Spartans	1
10	Wisconsin Badgers	-1
11	South Carolina Gamecocks	--
12	Michigan Wolverines	--
13	Baylor Bears	--
14	TCU Horned Frogs	2
15	Georgia Bulldogs	--
16	West Virginia Mountaineers	4
17	Kansas St. Wildcats	--
18	Houston Cougars	5
19	Virginia Tech Hokies	-1
20	Southern Miss. Golden Eagles	2
21	Oklahoma Sooners	--
22	Florida St. Seminoles	2
23	Clemson Tigers	-9
24	Northern Illinois Huskies	1
25	Nebraska Cornhuskers	-6
Dropouts: Penn St. Nittany Lions

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings "

Another one bites the dust.

Joe Rudolph has officially joined Paul Chryst and Bob Bostad at Pitt.

The move suggests Bret Bielema was not going to offer Rudolph the offensive coordinator position at Wisconsin, because this is an otherwise lateral move, although Rudolph is from the Pittsburgh area.

Bielema now only has one remaining offensive coach on his staff: running backs coach Thomas Hammock.

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So Paul Chryst is leaving and Montee Ball is staying. What about center Peter Konz?

He's next on our watch list and there seemed to be some confusion regarding his future earlier. The Wisconsin State Journal was at one point this morning reporting that Peter Konz was both leaving for the NFL and staying at Wisconsin. Now, I've never heard of any player playing in both the NFL and college football, so one could only assume Konz would be the first player ever to pull that off.

Kidding of course, but Badgers fans will probably not find it funny that Konz is likely heading to the NFL.

11:35 AM - Andy Baggot cleared up his earlier tweet about Konz staying with a follow-up:

My apologies for misinterpreting a text earlier today regarding Peter Konz's plans. Good luck to him in the NFL draft.

— Andy Baggot (@AndyBaggotWSJ) January 6, 2012

Still no official word from Konz or the Badgers, but he's a goner.

9:20 AM - The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is also reporting that Konz will declare for the NFL Draft.

9:15 AM - Tom Mulbern now has a story on Madison.com about Konz leaving. Looks like that is the verdict.

9:13 AM - It started with Tom Mulhern writing on Twitter at 8:49 a.m. that Konz was leaving:

Continue reading this post »

On what started as a day in which we thought we'd just be watching for an announcement from Montee Ball, we are now watching a parade of assistant coaches leave the Badgers.

We'll update this story throughout the day as situation develops.

8:15 PM - The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that Joe Rudolph is "solid" on returning to Wisconsin and will not leave before the start of next season. Rudolph, who will take over as offensive line coach, will also be the running game coordinator, according to the report. Keeping Rudolph is important because he has had a lot of success as the team's recruiting coordinator.

Meanwhile, the report also says center Peter Konz will be more inclined to stay at UW for his senior season if Rudolph stays on the staff.

3:10 PM - The Badgers made it official with DelVaughn Alexander's move to Arizona State:

Good luck to former WRs coach DelVaughn Alexander! Moving on to @SparkyArizonaSt

— Badger Football (@BadgerFootball) January 4, 2012

3:02 PM - According to the Wisconsin State Journal, linebackers coach Dave Huxtable is leaving Wisconsin to take the defensive coordinator job under Paul Chryst at Pitt despite saying last week that he was "100 percent" staying in Madison. In addition, wide receivers coach DelVaughn is headed to Arizona State, but it's unclear what position he is taking in Tempe.

Meanwhile, Oklahoma State co-offensive coordinator Jay Norwell has emerged as a candidate for the vacant offensive coordinator job at Wisconsin, according to the paper. He is a Madison native and has talked to Bielema about the job. Of course if Bielema hires Norwell, he could also lose recruiting coordinator Joe Rudolph who is set to take over as offensive line coach and is candidate to be the offensive coordinator at UW. Rudolph is close to Chryst and reportedly has an offer waiting for him at Pitt.

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Greetings from American Airlines flight 1155 with service from Chicago to Los Angeles. Internet on airplanes is truly awesome.

Yesterday we broke down Oregon's zone read offense and today we're going to take a look at the Ducks' 3-4 hybrid defense as well as their apparent advantage on special teams.

Their defense is called a 3-4 hybrid because there are really only three true defensive linemen on the field, but they will almost always have at least four players lined up on the line by bringing a linebacker or two up. If you look at their depth chart, you would actually think they are running a 4-3 because it lists two defensive ends, two defensive tackles and three linebackers. The catch is that one of the defensive ends is really in the mold of a linebacker.

At 6-3, 265, Terrell Turner is listed as a defensive end, but his height and weight put him right in the middle of being a linebacker and a defensive end, thus he's a "hybrid" player. Tony Washington also gets time at the position at 6-3, 262.

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By now you've probably heard a little about Oregon's "complex" offense. Over the last few days, I've spent a lot of time watching some Oregon film, spending the most time on their win over Stanford and their loss against USC.

After watching the film, I've made some general conclusions:

1. Oregon's offense isn't as high-powered and daunting as you might think.
2. It's also not as complex as you might think. The Ducks actually run the same formations and plays a lot, but the players are free to improvise after the snap. A run up the middle out of one formation, might go to the outside out of the very same formation the next time, just because the running back reads the defense that way. But that's what makes it so hard to defend: They keep the defense guessing.
   
3. While I'd say Wisconsin's offense is more potent than Oregon's, the Ducks' playmakers are a bad matchup for the Badgers.

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This is the last in a four-part series with SBNation's Oregon blog, Addicted To Quack. Each week leading up to the Rose Bowl, David Piper, who contributes to ATQ, has answered five questions for us and I answered five questions for them. In our first part, we got a general introduction to the Oregon program. Last week, we took a look at the head coaches. In the third part, we broke down what to look for when Oregon has the ball. In our final part below, we take a look at what to watch for when Wisconsin has the ball.

My answers to ATQ's questions can be found here.

B5Q: I've already been criticized for underestimating Oregon's defense. Why is the unit better than we might expect?

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When Bret Bielema spoke to reporters Monday upon landing in Los Angeles, he revealed that another one of his assistants would be joining Paul Chryst in Pittsburgh, but declined to say which one.

It didn't take long for reports to surface that the assistant is offensive line coach Bob Bostad.

The Wisconsin State Journal, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and BadgerNation.com all reported Monday that Bostad will go with Chryst after the Rose Bowl. The expectation is that Bostad will be Chryst's offensive coordinator at Pitt, while current UW tight ends coach Joe Rudolph will be promoted to offensive coordinator for the Badgers.

Obviously the loss of Chryst was huge, but Bostad will be tough to replace as well. The Badgers are known for having good running backs and effective offensive lines, but together, Chryst and Bostad turned the Wisconsin running game into a well oiled machine the last few years. Four offensive linemen -- Gabe Carimi, John Moffitt, Kevin Zeitler and Peter Konz -- have been named All-Americans the last two years under Bostad.

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This is the third in a four-part series with SBNation's Oregon blog, Addicted To Quack. Each week leading up to the Rose Bowl, David Piper, who contributes to ATQ, will answer five questions for us and I'll answer five questions for them. In our first part, we got a general introduction to the Oregon program. Last week, we took a look at the head coaches. In the third part, we break down what to look for when Oregon has the ball. In our final part later this week, we'll take a look at what to watch for when Wisconsin has the ball.

My answers to ATQ's questions can be found here.

B5Q: What makes Oregon's spread offense so hard to defend?

Continue reading this post »

Bret Bielema said it best: "We were friends yesterday and now we've got to battle it out a little bit."

That was the Badger head coach on his weekly radio show (via the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Jeff Potrykus) talking about Paul Chryst, who was announced as Pitt's new head coach today.

Bielema said he wants to hire his new offensive coordinator from his current staff -- either offensive line coach Bob Bostad or tight ends coach Joe Rudolph -- but also said that Chryst has already made offers to two members on the Wisconsin staff. Not surprisingly, Potrykus reports Bostad and Rudolph are the ones who received those offers.

To me, the biggest question is whether or not Chryst retains play calling duties. I expect that he will, which could entice Bielema's top choice to stay because he would have full offensive coordinator responsibilities.

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We linked to these unis in this morning's Badger Bits, but I haven't really had time today to comment on them yet.

No official announcement has been made by the Badgers, but these Rose Bowl jerseys are being sold on multiple web sites (the ones above are from Yahoo!'s fan shop) and they all have the Adidas logo on them.

And then there is this random web site called WisconsinRose.com that has a countdown to when the new jerseys will be revealed. If you are wondering what the clock is counting down to, it's Rose Bowl Media Day, where the players wear their game jerseys.

(More detailed photo after the jump.)

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