The offseason (and we're talking football and basketball here) can be a quirky time to say the least, but one constant seems to be the debate as to conference supremacy. It usually falls along the line of the SEC is the best... The Big Ten is a sinking ship... yada, yada, yada. We've heard the arguments over and over, time and again and that's not what we are here for. 

Instead, the debate should really be if you are a fan of Team X should you be rooting for team's A through Z in your conference. After all, a rising tide lifts all boats, right? 

On the other hand, why the hell should Wisconsin fans give a crap if Indiana or Purdue are winning some mediocre bowl game against another MAC opponent? It's a good debate to be sure, but those of you who know me also know that I run Bloguin's Big Ten blog The B1G Time and you can guess from there where my flag is planted. 

Yes, I'm a fan of the Big Ten conference, but with a rooting interest based off of my coverage and fandom for the Badgers.

Unlike those in the SEC who seem to jump on whatever ship is doing well and ride their coat tails of success at all levels (do we need to go over the S-E-C chants that pop up every time a school wins a bowl game or a NCAA Tournament game?), the Big Ten needs to be smarter than that, and let's face facts.... we all know who the giant of the academic world is between the two... It's not even close. 

That said, being a Wisconsin fan as you are most likely if you are reading this, here is our guide to rooting for the rest of the Big Ten should you chose to root on the league that houses the Badgers. 

Fresh off celebrating the school's first ever Big Ten tournament title the Badgers found out the who, when, and where of their NCAA Tournament journey. Wisconsin was placed in the Eugene regional with host and number three seed Oregon, BYU, and North Carolina. 

In that regional UW will take on the North Carolina Tar Heels (39-19) on Thursday to open up regional play. UNC and Wisconsin will tangle for the 2nd time this season as they met in the opener of the Louisville Classic with the Badgers coming away with a 4-2 victory. 

The time and broadcast schedule (it won't be an ESPN/watchESPN game) have yet to be announced as of this writing.

North Carolina finished third in the ACC this season with a 13-8 record and are just 6-4 in their last 10 contests coming into the NCAA Tournament.

The regionals take place May 16-19 and are double elimination, meaning you are in until you lose two games.

This is just the 2nd time in the NCAA Tournament for Wisconsin, who lost in back-to-back games at the Goodman Diamond on campus to be knocked out of the 2005 tournament.

Should Wisconsin advance out of the regional round the Super Regionals are May 23-26 in a best of three series at the highest remaining seed. 

Some worried about a let down from the Badgers following their upset of Michigan on Saturday and after going down 2-0 early on it appeared that could be the case. However the Badgers rallied back and came away 9-3 winners for the 2nd straight day, earning the programs first ever Big Ten tournament title and beating rival Minnesota to do it. 

With the win Wisconsin (42-11) earned the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, returning to the national tournament for the 1st time since 2005. 

The Badgers were easily the most dominate team in the tournament and a lot of that had to do with the performance of pitcher Cassandra Darrah, who went all seven innings in the tournament final. 

Her three straight complete game W's in the tournament earned her tournament MVP honors. She was joined on the all-tournament team by freshman Steffani LaJuenesse and sophomore Maria Van Abel. 

One swing of the bat, that's all it took for UW to make the softball world stand up and take notice on their way to a 9-3 win over No. 6/8 Michigan in Saturday's Big Ten Tournament semi final. With Wisconsin up 2-0 already up stepped  pinch hitter, Steffani LaJuenesse,  and what transpired in her at bat changed the face of the game and UW's resume for the NCAA tournament.

Call it a hunch or call it dumb luck, whatever it was that made coach Yvette Healy put LaJuenesse in it worked as LaJuenesse stepped up and delivered a virtual knock out blow with a two out grand slam that made it 6-0 before the 1st inning was complete. 

Any pitcher seeing six runs of support on the board would be confident and that's exactly what Cassandra Darrah had on her way to a good outing, minus one inning. Darrah pitched a complete game, giving up 6 hits and 2 walks, while striking out four with all three runs earned.

Wisconsin softball will most likely only go as far as their pitching will take them this postseason and on Friday afternoon in Lincoln, Nebraska that was on full display as the No. 4 seed Wisconsin blanked No. 12 seed Northwestern 3-0 in a Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal. 

The Badgers got behind their star pitcher Cassandra Darrah, who tossed seven innings of shutout baseball. She surrendered just 4 hits and struck out eight Wildcat batters, while giving up just three walks to earn the win and improve her season record to 24-5. 

Darrah also got help from the Northwestern defense, who had three errors on the day and helped throw away a good enough to win performance from pitcher Amy Letourneau who allowed just three hits over six innings of work, striking out seven. 

Letourneau also contributed to her own downfall by walking six Badger batters and contributing to the defensive errors as well.

Nothing was gauranteed to Matt Walsh, a member of the Badgers 1983 national championship team, but after going through the official process he had the iterim tag removed and became an official assistant coach on Mike Eaves' hockey staff for the 2013-14 season. 

“I think having Matt with us since November, we were able to see first-hand how he interacts with college students and the work that he does on the ice,” said Head Coach Mike Eaves in a statement. “It became clear as time went on, that he was very capable of doing the job here.

“We also got to know him as a man, we got to know his family and it all matches up really well.

“We went through due diligence in the process,” explained Eaves. “We had many people apply. I talked to a handful of people who I thought might be serious candidates and chatted with them, but in the end it all came back to Matt and what he did for us this year.”

Walsh will continue his focus on the Wisconsin defesemen, a unit that reall propelled the Badgers to the NCAA tournament and the Broadmoor Trophy this past season. It didn't 

It seems as if making lists, checking them twice.... Oh and coming out with ridiculously early preseason polls are all the rage around the interwebs these days. Normally I don't put a lot of stock in these things - especially the one's that come out like hours after the national championship game has been played - however, most have been smart now and have either updated or waited until the NBA draft deadline so we have a reasonable level of roster expectations. 

So, in that veign it's time to look at where the pollsters and bracketologists have the Badgers as we move into the summer dolldrums. 

(This list is meant as a conversation piece, so converstate away in our comments section folks)

Jon Rothstein of CBS: Wisconsin 24th
Sporting News: Wisconsin 11th
BracketologyExpert.com: Wisconsin 20th 
Real GM: Wisconsin 10th 
USA Today Sports: Wisconsin RV 
Dick Vitale's Top 40: Wisconsin 28th 
Jason King of ESPN: Wisconsin on the cusp 
Andy Katz of ESPN: Wisconsin 25th 
CBSSports.com: Wisconsin 12th 

As you can see the rankings are all over the place for UW and really, after reading the polls it's more of a personal preference for some of these guys than an actual analysis of facts, rosters, and the like. Who do you think as the Badgers ranked too high, too low, or just right? Comment away, commenters.

Wisconsin welcomed former assistant coach Tony Bennett and his Virginia Cavaliers back to the Kohl Center and coach Bennett's charges came out with a 60-54 victory in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. The Badgers will get a chance to avenge that loss this season as the two will meet in the 15th annual Big Ten/ACC Challenge.

The Badgers and Cavaliers will meet on Dec. 4th at John Paul Jones Arena, with the time and ESPN station to be determined at a later date. 

Last season the two conferences were at a stalemate, tying at 6-6, and leaving the Big Ten with the Commissioners Cup as the winner of the 2011 challenge. 

The loss last year dropped the Badgers to 6-8 overall in the challenge, but they are actually one of the most successful teams in the Big Ten as they are second in wins to only Illinois. 

Wisconsin has won games three of the last five seasons in the challenge. 

UW's opponent is coming off an appearance in the 2013 NIT tournament and holds a 5-1 all-time record at home in the challenge. 

Expecting anything but a defensive challenge would be asking a lot from two teams who were ranked amongst the best on that side of the ball. UW was seventh in the nation in scoring defense (55.9ppg) and the Wahoo's were fifth with a nearly identical average (55.7ppg). 

Records are made to be broken and in 2013 that's what the University of Wisconsin softball team has been all about. Well, another one fell on Wednesday morning as five Badgers softball players were named to All-Big Ten lists. 

Leading the way were first team members Whitney Massey, Cassandra Darrah, and Mary Massei. Joining them on the lists were Kendall Grimm and Meghan McIntosh, who both earned second team all-Big Ten honors. 

Also honored was Maria Van Abel, who got the team's Sportsmanship Award by the Big Ten. 

Darrah was honored as a second team All-Big Ten member last season and finished this year tied for 2nd on the single season win list in Wisconsin history with a 23-5 record and a 2.25 ERA, which was 2nd in the conference this season. 

She wasn't the only one making a return to All-Big Ten honors as Whitney Massey is making her second consecutive appearance on the first team. She led the team with 18 doubles and broke yet another record with 12 home runs. She also knocked in 24 RBI's, which was sixth in Big Ten play this year. 

Back to the pitching mound the Badgers also saw Meghan McIntosh earn honors after a season in which she was 7-3 with a 2.72 ERA in league play alone (good for 6th in the B1G), as well as an unreal .173 opponent batting average in conference play. 

The final honoree Kendall Grimm who ended the regular season .391 batting average and was 2nd on the team in hits during B1G play with 25. She was also one of the best fielders around, ending the conference season with a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage. This was her 2nd honor after being named to the first team last year. 

Is it just us or is it still weird saying the words Big - Ten - Hockey? Alas we are getting closer and closer to that reality as earlier today the Big Ten conference offices announced the full schedule for the inaugural season of Big Ten hockey. 

Each team will play a 20 game conference schedule with most games taking place on Friday or Saturday and a few on other dates. That means each team will play the other five teams in two game series' both home and away. 

Things will open with a bang for the Badgers and they get to take on rival Minnesota in Minneapolis on November 29th and 30th. UW will open their Big Ten home slate the next weekend as they take on Penn State on Dec. 6th and 7th. 

Other highlights include a January 10th and 11th home series against perennial national power Michigan and then back-to-back series' against the Wolverines (Jan. 31st - Feb. 1st) and Minnesota (Feb. 6th or 8th and Feb. 7th).