Tonight’s long-awaited, much-anticipated, match at Madison, between the Gophers and Badgers, two of the top 5 teams in the country, has been “postponed” due to ongoing covid-quarantines for the Gophers, leaving them too thin to compete. As of now, Sunday evening’s match between these same two teams, scheduled at the PAV, is still on.
I’ve put quotation marks around postponed because this is the 5th match of the season postponed for the Gophers (even more for the Badgers), and there’s no chance that all of these missed matches will be made up. It does seem, to me, that if any of the missed matches are rescheduled, the Gopher-Badger match (or matches) would be a priority, from a competitive standpoint. And maybe easier due to the proximity. The postponed home-and-home matches between Penn State & Ohio State have been made up.
Maybe it is unseemly to talk about who tonight’s cancellation “favors,” but I will. I think it cuts several ways, depending on what happens with the match scheduled for Sunday. * Unbeaten Wisconsin is alone atop the Big Ten standings, and ranked #1 nationally; our 11 & 1 Gophers in 3rd place and ranked 5th. And even without fans in the stands, teams play better at home. IF Sunday’s match at the PAV gets played, and IF the Gophers win (and tonight’s match never rescheduled) this would edge the Gophers ahead of the Badgers in the Big Ten standings, and presumably in both the polls and the seeding for the NCAAs (assuming that gets played) – without having to play, short-handed (missing 3 of our 4 Middles) as we would have been, at Madison. Advantage Gophers. * But in a sense, the Badgers need Sunday’s game more than we do. If Sunday’s game gets postponed and none of the “postponed” games ever rescheduled, Wisconsin will finish their season as the unbeaten Big Ten Champs, and the #1 seed for the NCAAs, without playing any of the top teams. (Their matches vs Nebraska also got “postponed,” and they were never scheduled to play Ohio State (currently 2nd in the Big Ten). Advantage Badgers; an easy-peasy championship. But this would be the 4th weekend in a row that the Badgers’ matches have been cancelled, and it would not be to the Badgers advantage to enter the NCAAs without playing any tough matches.