“I think it’s a real intense rivalry,” junior running back Le’Veon Bell said. “Every year we play them, it’s been a close game; it comes down to the last possession or so.”

Last season, the Spartans famously topped the Badgers, 37-31, when then-senior quarterback Kirk Cousins hurled a 44-yard Hail Mary pass to then-senior wide receiver Keith Nichol to win the game in the final seconds under the lights at Spartan Stadium.

However, the Badgers got the last laugh in the inaugural Big Ten championship game when they topped MSU, 42-39, in Indianapolis, earning them a trip to the Rose Bowl and sending the Spartans packing for Orlando instead.

“It’s kind of personal for me, just for the simple fact (that) I didn’t play very well in that championship game,” senior defensive tackle Anthony Rashad White said. “You never want to end on a game like that.”

MSU leads the overall series, 29-22, but has not won a game inside Camp Randall Stadium since 2001.

Junior wide receiver Bennie Fowler said although the previous two games definitely ratcheted up the intensity, there still were some sore feelings from the 2010 season, in which the Spartans caught the short end of a three-way tie to win the Big Ten with the Badgers and Ohio State, and Wisconsin was rewarded with a trip to Pasadena.

“We always play with a chip on our shoulder, especially against Wisconsin,” Fowler said. “They’ve gone to the Rose Bowl twice the past two years and we thought one year we were going to get that bid, but we weren’t able to.”

Fowler added that a lot of the intensity comes from the fact that the Spartans and the Badgers are similar in style, in that they’re both physical teams that will run at you, a sentiment echoed by Bell, who went so far as to place it on the same level as MSU’s rivalry with Michigan.

“It’s about right there,” he said. “We always are two good teams going at it, we both know what each other likes to do, we’re the same type of team, (and) we really try to pound the ball at each other, so it’s going to be a good game.”

Although the rivalry is budding, Saturday’s game will be the final played between MSU and the Badgers until at least 2017, unless the two teams meet in the Big Ten championship game.

“That is disappointing,” Bell said. “We’ve had some big games against them but you know, it is what it is. Hopefully we can meet up in the Big Ten championship if both teams do well.

“It doesn’t have to be over.”