State Football Roundup: Wisconsin won't take it easy against Penn St.

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MADISON - Don’t expect the University of Wisconsin football team to take it easy at Penn State on Saturday.

The game officially means nothing, since the Badgers already have a place in the Big Ten championship contest the following week. But associate head coach Charlie Partridge said yesterday that the Badgers would have some problems if they rested key players at Penn State. Partridge said the players would be shocked if the coaches did that – and the players would want nothing to do with it. As Partridge put it, “How do you preach 1-0, and then do something like that? It doesn’t fit into our makeup.” Coach Bret Bielema has traditionally preached the “1-and-0” theory, which means the only game to focus on is the next one.

The Badgers were hoping to get a share of the Leaders’ Division crown, to prove they belonged in the title contest – but they lost to unbeaten Ohio State in overtime on Saturday in Madison. Both the Badgers and Penn State are 7-4 overall. The Nittany Lions are 5-2 in the conference, and Wisconsin is at 4-3. A loss on Saturday would make the Badgers finish at .500 in regular season league play for the first time since 2008.

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UW-Oshkosh will host Bethel University on Saturday in the Sweet-16 Round of the NCAA Division III football playoffs. The Titans remained unbeaten at 11-0, after crushing Saint Scholastica 55-10 over the weekend. Oshkosh quarterback Nate Wara – who once considered walking on at Wisconsin – ran for a season-high 128 yards. Bethel is 9-2, after winning its first-round game over Concordia-Chicago 24-23. Saturday’s winner will play either North Central out of Chicago or Linfield of Oregon in the national quarter-finals on December first.

Tags: wisconsin sports, football, badgers, proam