By Michael SchlossbergThe Daily Northwestern

With Ohio State and Michigan occupying the top two spots of the BCS rankings, No. 17 Wisconsin (7-1, 4-1) has been flying under the radar all season.

The Badgers, who sit in third place in the Big Ten with only one conference loss, have been quietly taking care of business.

After limiting one of the nation’s most potent offenses in Purdue to three points last week, Wisconsin has held all but one of its opponents under 17 points this season.

However, because of the national attention Ohio State and Michigan have been receiving, Wisconsin’s performance has gone largely unnoticed by many.

“I don’t work for the media, and none of our players do either, so what perspective they take or how they view our team is out of our control,” Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema said. “We’re not going to be labeled as one of the sexy schools in the conference. We’ve got a workman’s mentality.”

In the past four weeks, the Badgers have been just as dominant as the two teams ahead of them, outscoring their opponents 165-41.

With home contests against Illinois, Penn State, Buffalo and a trip to Iowa still left on its schedule, the possibility exists that Wisconsin could have the misfortune of winning 11 regular season games while finishing third in the Big Ten.

“One of the things we always preach is to not worry about things we can’t control,” Bielema said. “We just try to focus on the business at hand.”

MICHIGAN WR CHARGED

Michigan wide receiver Adrian Arrington was charged with misdemeanor domestic violence Tuesday.

According to the police report, officers responded to a call from Arrington’s girlfriend at 3 a.m. on Oct. 13. His girlfriend claims that after picking up Arrington from a bar where he had been drinking, she got into an argument with him, leading him to take her keys, push her out of the vehicle, and drive off.

Arrington was arraigned last week in district court and a pretrial hearing is scheduled for Nov. 1.

If convicted, Arrington could face up to 93 days in jail and a $500 fine.

Michigan coach Lloyd Carr, however, is confident in Arrington’s innocence.

“I made a statement after the game that the facts do not support the allegation,” Carr said. “I maintain that that’s still true, and I think it will prove to be accurate in the future.”

Arrington has caught 25 balls for 357 yards and four touchdowns this season, but has become a bigger part of the offense the past two weeks following Mario Manningham’s injury.

He is expected to play Saturday against Northwestern.

REVILED RECEIVERS

Upset with the performance of his wide-outs this week, Purdue coach Joe Tiller benched his first-string receivers for the final play of Saturday’s 24-3 loss to Wisconsin.

The coaching staff felt the receivers were not continuing to give a strong effort after Purdue fell behind, and as a product of this lackluster performance, Boilermaker receivers dropped four passes.

“That was disheartening,” Tiller said. “It was like we threw the towel in.”

Despite having four receivers among the top 12 in receiving yards in the Big Ten, only one player surpassed 35 yards Saturday.

Among the players Tiller was frustrated with was Selwyn LyMonday, who was playing in his first game since being shot in the eye with an air gun.

“Our receivers weren’t coming back to the ball,” Tiller said. “And I think we saw the results of Lymon missing as much practice as he did. He didn’t come back to the ball and on wide open throws he waited for the ball to come to him.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Reach Michael Schlossberg at [email protected].