Wisconsin, Spartans in rematch

Associated Press

MADISON, Wis.

Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema has seen the highlight over and over, more times than he’d care to remember.

The deflected Hail Mary pass fell into the arms of Michigan State wide receiver Keith Nichol, who wrestled it over the goal line. After a replay review ruled in Michigan State’s favor, the Spartans were celebrating a wild last-second victory.

That loss, combined with a similar defeat at Ohio State the following week, erased Wisconsin from the national championship picture. But when No. 15 Wisconsin takes on No. 11 Michigan State in Saturday’s Big Ten championship game in Indianapolis, the Badgers won’t be using revenge as their motivation.

“Michigan State earned that victory,” Bielema said. “Obviously, they scored more points than we did and were able to execute at the end of the game in a way that gave them a victory. And our kids have to take that and learn from it.”

Instead of seeking revenge, Wisconsin players see Saturday’s game as a chance to continue what has been an impressive rebound from those two late collapses.

“We’re looking forward to it,” Badgers linebacker Chris Borland said after Saturday’s victory over Penn State. “We were frustrated with the way that game ended. But we’re not going to overplay the revenge thing.”

For Michigan State, it’s a chance to go to the Rose Bowl after being shut out of the BCS last season.

“We felt like we were the odd man out, felt like we at the very least should have gone to a BCS game,” Spartans coach Mark Dantonio said. “We played a tough schedule. There were all those things that were documented or whatever, we talked about last year. So we were sort of the odd man out. But in retrospect, we didn’t play at that level when we had a chance to play in the Capital One bowl game, so that ended the discussion as far as I was concerned.”

Michigan State (10-2, 7-1 Big Ten) clinched the Big Ten Legends division early. Wisconsin (10-2, 6-2) had to beat Penn State on Saturday to claim the Leaders division on a tiebreaker.