Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema understands a lot of people believe his Badgers don't deserve to be playing in the Big Ten championship game.

Asked if he's insulted by the sentiment, he says he's not.

"I appreciate the question and understand it totally," he said Sunday. "I think there are 10 teams out there in the Big Ten that would love to be in the position Nebraska and we're in right now. When the two teams take the field on Saturday, neither is going to care how the other team got there or what their record is."

With Ohio State and Penn State ineligible because of NCAA sanctions, the Badgers will represent the Leaders Division against Legends champion Nebraska this Saturday at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

The winner goes to the Rose Bowl to play UCLA or Stanford.

The Badgers (7-5, 4-4), the two-time defending Big Ten champions, finished third in their division behind Ohio State and Penn State after losing three of their last four games in overtime.

The 14th-ranked Cornhuskers (10-2, 7-1) have won six straight since a 25-point loss at Ohio State on Oct. 6. They won their division outright when Michigan lost to the Buckeyes and will be playing for their first conference championship since winning the Big 12 in 1999.

Nebraska opened Big Ten play on Sept. 29 with a 30-27 win over the Badgers, coming back from a 17-point, third-quarter deficit.

Pelini told Bielema after that game that he thought they might meet again in Indianapolis.

"Here we are," Pelini said.

Wisconsin won last year's inaugural Big Ten championship game 42-39 over Michigan State. The Badgers are looking for their 14th Big Ten title and a third straight league title for the first time in school history.

Nebraska has won 43 conference titles and is looking for its first Big Ten championship in its second year in the league.

The Badgers were 6-2 overall and 3-1 in the league after beating Minnesota in mid-October. An overtime loss to Michigan State, a win over Indiana and OT losses to Ohio State and Penn State ended the regular season.

Bielema said he's received supportive correspondence from people around the Big Ten since the Badgers clinched a spot in the title game.

"We've been on the short stick of some close, hard-fought games," he said. "The optimist in me looks at it and says, `Hey, we were in these games.' We lost to Ohio State and Penn State, who are ineligible to play in the game. One play here or there, we could we win them. We didn't. I get it... It's not going to diminish what we've accomplished."

Pelini said he doesn't buy that some of the luster is off the Big Ten championship game because unbeaten Ohio State, which finished first in the Leaders, won't be there.

"I don't really care what people say about that," he said. "Wisconsin is there because they deserve to be there. (Ohio State's) not there for a reason. That's not taking anything away from Urban Meyer or the kids who played at Ohio State and played their tails off, but there's a reason they're not there."

Wisconsin is in the same position it was in a year ago, playing an opponent in the championship game that had beaten the Badgers in the regular season. Last year Michigan State handed the Badgers their first loss of the season, 37-31.

Montee Ball scored four touchdowns, the last coming on a 7-yard run with 3:45 left, and the Badgers used a running into the kicker penalty to kill the clock to win the championship game. Russell Wilson, who threw for three touchdowns, was the game's MVP.

Wilson has gone to the NFL, leaving the Badgers to play three quarterbacks this season.

Joel Stave, who replaced Danny O'Brien, made his first road start against Nebraska and turned in a strong first-half performance before O'Brien replaced him late in the game. Curt Phillips has started the last three games.

The Badgers still have Ball, the 2011 Heisman Trophy finalist who went over 1,500 yards rushing and became the NCAA career touchdown leader in the loss to Penn State. Ball ran for 90 yards and three touchdowns on 32 carries against Nebraska but was held to 31 yards on 15 runs in the second half.

"We lost a heartbreaker to Nebraska on the road," Bielema said. "We played well in that game and did some things not so well. I know they're a better team than we saw. I know we're a better team, too. It's going to be fun for us."

Nebraska is coming off a 13-7 win over Iowa, a game that marked the return of running back Rex Burkhead. The senior, who had been out with a left knee sprain, ran 16 times for 69 yards in his first action since Oct. 20 at Northwestern. In the fourth quarter alone, Burkhead carried the ball 10 times for 57 yards.

Burkhead had 86 yards in the first game against Wisconsin. The Huskers' playmaker that night was Taylor Martinez, who threw for 181 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 107 and a score.

Pelini said what happened in the first meeting won't have any impact in the second.

"The challenges will be the same," he said.

© 2012 STATS LLC

Ball helps Badgers rush past No. 14 Nebraska 70-31

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Montee Ball and Wisconsin are heading back to the Rose Bowl after an overwhelming performance the Badgers hope will make people forget they finished third in their division.

Ball rushed for 202 yards and three more touchdowns Saturday night, leading the Badgers to a 70-31 rout of No. 14 Nebraska for a third straight Big Ten championship and a third consecutive trip to the Rose Bowl.

All Ball and his teammates wanted was an opportunity to show critics who claimed they didn't belong in the league title game that they were wrong.

"We kind of set our minds before the game that this is our game," Ball said. "The running backs were going to set the tempo."

Did they ever?

Ball ran for 202 yards and three touchdowns, broke the Football Bowl Subdivision career rushing touchdowns record, tied the FBS record for most games with two or more scores, topped the 5,000-yard mark and was named the game MVP.

Not a bad night for a guy whose numbers weren't even the best on the team.

Melvin Gordon opened the scoring with a 56-yard TD run and had a career-high 216 yards on nine carries. Three different Badgers threw passes, including running back James White who ran for 108 yards and four TDs and threw for a touchdown on the first pass of his college career.

It was the most improbable Big Ten title in Wisconsin's three-year run. The Badgers are the first five-loss team to reach the Rose Bowl, and became the first Big Ten school since Michigan in the late 1970s to earn three consecutive tickets to Pasadena, Calif.

"As my AD tells me all the time, you haven't one won yet," coach Bret Bielema said. "We're going out there to win. That's the mission, and I appreciate all the fans coming out to Madison East."

Indiana has quickly become a second home for the Badgers.

Wisconsin is the only Big Ten team with a win at Lucas Oil Stadium and has now won 10 straight in the Hoosier State. It played three games in Indiana this season, rushing for 1,570 yards and 19 TDs while outscoring opponents 170-59 in those three games.

But Saturday was the biggest night of all.

For the first time in school history, the Badgers had two 200-yard rushers. They finished with the fourth-highest rushing total in school history (539) and tied a conference championship game scoring record. Texas also scored 70 points in the 2005 Big 12 championship game.

Nebraska hadn't allowed 70 points since a 76-39 thrashing by Kansas In November 2007. The loss ended the Cornhuskers six-game winning streak, which began after a 63-38 loss to Ohio State, and the 'Huskers simply had no answers.

"What do you do? What is defensive football," Nebraska coach Bo Pelini said before calling the season a failure and apologizing for not bringing home a league title. "It's play your gaps, handle your responsibility, be where you're supposed to be and make tackles, and we did none of the above.

It was a fitting end to a wacky Big Ten season.

Wisconsin (8-5, 4-4) only reached this year's because Leaders Division champion Ohio State (12-0) and division runner-up Penn State (8-4) were both ineligible for postseason play.

But on Saturday the Badgers took advantage of their good fortune by piling up 639 total yards in total offense.

The defense dominated, too. In the first half alone, Taylor Martinez was sacked three times, fumbled twice, losing one and had an interception returned for a touchdown. He finished 17 of 33 for 184 yards with two interceptions and six sacks. He also rushed 19 times for 140 yards, scoring on a nifty 76-yard run, but fumbled twice.

Bielema countered by emptying the playbook and running right over the Nebraska (10-3, 7-1).

"We practiced some of them (trick plays) for a while," Bielema said. "There's probably a couple we haven't used yet either and they'll remain a little secret. James wanted to be recruited as a quarterback all along, so finally had that opportunity to show up out there and just a lot of different things. Our kids had a little bit of fun with it, but it was still the meat and potatoes that got us to where we were. "

The onslaught started fast.

Gordon took the ball on an end around, made two cuts and sprinted 56 yards for a 7-0 lead on the fourth play of the game.

On the next offensive play, a falling Kenny Bell tipped Martinez's pass up in the air and Wisconsin's Marcus Cromartie picked it off and raced 29 yards. It was already 14-0 after only 2:07 in.

The `Huskers finally counterpunched with Martinez's long run and then got a 32-yard field goal to make it 14-10.

Then the Badgers opened things up.

With the ball on the right hash, they sent seven players to the left hash and had Curt Phillips throw a pass to Derek Watt on the right. After two more conventional runs, White ran two plays out of the Wildcat formation, scoring on the second one from 9 yards to make it 21-10.

White scored again on 1 -yard plunge right after Phillips caught a 27-yard pass from receiver Jared Abbrederis. And after Ball's record-breaking touchdown dive made it 35-10, Gordon went 60-yards on an end around to put the ball at the Nebraska 3 with 6 seconds left in the half. This time, White lined up in the Wildcat ran right lobbed a 3-yard TD pass to Sam Arneson for a 42-10 halftime lead.

"Shock doesn't even begin to explain it," Pelini said. "It was like a leaking boat. It was one thing after another, one problem after another. There were some things that we corrected and then it happened again. I've never been a part of a game like that as a coach. "

Things got even worse in the second half.

Wisconsin picked off Martinez again on the opening possession, and Ball scored on a 9-yard TD run on the next play.

Martinez answered with an 11-yard TD run, but Ball scored on a 57-yard run and White followed that with a 68-yard TD run to make it 63-17 with 6:42 left in the third quarter.

"We felt like we had a big statement to make on a big stage," Ball said. "We just wanted to make sure that we executed."

© 2012 STATS LLC