Badgers eager to compete for another division title - and more

CHICAGO - The Wisconsin Badgers have a chance to do something no other Big Ten team has done since the conference added a championship game in 2011: if they win the Big Ten West for the third straight season in 2018, they will be the first Big Ten team to appear in the Big Ten Championship Game three times in a row. And while the Badgers always want to be in the hunt for a conference title, making it back to Indianapolis could also give them another chance to contend for a bid into the College Football Playoff - if they can avoid losing more than one game during the regular season.

But even though the Big Ten East gets a lot of attention for being one of (if not the) toughest division in college football, the Badgers know that their Big Ten West rivals will be hungry to knock them out of first place in the division for the first time since 2015.

So how can the Badgers make it back to Indianapolis with another big target on their backs? At the Big Ten’s Media Days in Chicago, UW head coach Paul Chryst said it starts with his team taking every week for what it is - another chance to get better and earn the right to play more games at the end of the season.

“I think we know how competitive the Big Ten is,” Chryst said in Chicago on Tuesday. “And really every week it's a great challenge. And our players know that. And so you know - there's great players in this league. I've always thought that. And I know there's great coaches in this league. So you know people are going to get better. And each week it's going to be a great competition. And you just want your players to be as prepared for that as they can be and then go out and play.”

That mindset at Wisconsin doesn’t change from year to year, even as the rest of the Big Ten West prepares to give the Badgers their best shot every week. Chryst said the key for his team is to respect their opponents - and focus on what they can do to improve every week.

“All we talk about is give yourselves a chance to have a chance,” Chryst said. “You know there's great, like I said, players and teams across the field from you. And whether you're hunted, you're hunting, we're all trying to do the same. I think the biggest thing you can do is try to focus on the areas that you can impact the most, and that's yourself. So you just want your players in a good spot and focused and appreciate the opportunity of great competition.”

In fact, the Badgers might be so focused on themselves that senior safety D’Cota Dixon had a hard time ranking the teams out of the Big Ten East when asked to by a reporter on Tuesday - because to spend time thinking about who they might play out of the Big Ten East in a hypothetical Big Ten Championship game is time that they could have otherwise spent trying to get better.

Because when every game is a battle, and you treat every game as though it determines whether you make it to the Big Ten title game or not, there’s really not any time to waste worrying about what the other teams are trying to do to catch you.

“I think that’s the fun part about being in the Big Ten,” senior linebacker T.J. Edwards said Tuesday. “You truly don’t know the favorites or anything like that because … no game is easy in this conference. It’s always a toss-up. You have to play your best every week.”

If the Badgers can do that again in 2018, don’t be surprised if they wind up back in Indianapolis once again - getting another chance to compete for a Big Ten title and more.

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John Veldhuis covers Wisconsin football, basketball and recruiting for BadgerBlitz.com on the Rivals.com network. Follow him on Twitter at @JohnVeldhuis.