Importance of Beating Wisconsin

We have always known that Wisconsin is the most important game we play every year. No loss upsets me more than one to our hated rival, and no win would taste sweeter (at least that's what I assume, I don't have much first hand experience). However, with the divisional format, and Wisconsin being a presumptive perennial contender, the head to head tie breaker makes the game twice as big. I was lamenting us letting the loss to lowly Illinois stain our season, and playing the "what if" game, and I realized that even if we had beaten both OSU and Illinois to get to 7-0 at this point, we would still be in the exact same spot with respect to our B1G title hopes: we need a win against Wisconsin to get to Indy. The Wisconsin game, even ignoring rivalries and emotions and just focusing on standings, matters more to our title hopes than 2 conference games against irrelevant teams in the west race (one from the east, one not in contention). Beating Wisconsin needs to be a priority this year and every year going forward.