COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The year was 2012, and the coach of the Big Ten champions quit.

Some panicked. That some was me.

The Big Ten lost a good coach and Ohio State lost a great villain Tuesday when Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema bolted for Arkansas when everyone thought he was just getting his Badgers ready for a third straight Rose Bowl.

His departure is blow for the conference, with the Big Ten champ (even if it is a five-loss champ) losing its coach to a mid-level SEC program. If you can't beat them, take their money and join them never rang so true.

The year is 2017.

Wisconsin, as in 2012, is the playing in the Big Ten Championship again, and Bret Bielema is changing jobs again.

This time he didn't quit. He was fired at Arkansas.

The guy who replaced him at Wisconsin, Gary Andersen, did quit. First he quit at Wisconsin in 2014 after that Big Ten Championship game, losing 59-0 to the Buckeyes and leaving for Oregon State the following week.

Then Andersen quit at Oregon State in October.

He went to Oregon State after Mike Riley left there to become the head coach at Nebraska. Riley was fired on Saturday, the same day as Bielema.

OK, that was confusing. Let's reset this Wisconsin timeline of supposed woe that wasn't.

* 2011: Wisconsin wins inaugural Big Ten Championship game

* 2012: Wisconsin wins second Big Ten Championship game

* 2012: Bielema leaves for Arkansas, Andersen replaces him

* 2014: Wisconsin makes third Big Ten Championship game in four years

* 2014: Andersen leaves, Paul Chryst replaces him

* 2016: Wisconsin makes fourth Big Ten Championship game in six years

* 2017: Wisconsin makes fifth Big Ten Championship game in seven years

The Badgers are doing it this year as the only remaining undefeated team among the Power 5 conferences, with a playoff berth waiting with a win over Ohio State.

Bielema in seven years had a .739 winning percentage at Wisconsin, and a .661 percentage in the Big Ten. He went 29-34 at Arkansas.

Andersen in two years had a .731 winning percentage at Wisconsin, and an .813 percentage in the Big Ten. He went 7-23 at Oregon State.

Chryst in three years has an .846 winning percentage at Wisconsin, and the same .846 winning percentage in the Big Ten. He went 19-19 in three years at Pitt before coming to Wisconsin, and he's a a 52-year-old Madison native and former Wisconsin quarterback who is never leaving.

On Sept. 14, 2013, Wisconsin botched its attempt to set up a game-winning field goal against Arizona State, then the referees messed up and the Badgers lost. Bielema's wife, Jen, famously tweeted this the next day.

Arkansas lost every game the rest of that 2013 season, finishing on a nine-game losing streak.

Since that tweet, her husband is 26-34. Since that tweet, Wisconsin is 50-12.

Once a thorn in Ohio State's side, Bielema had a 1-5 record against the Buckeyes. Upon arriving at Arkansas, Bielema told a booster club, "I came here to beat Alabama."

He went 0-5 against Alabama, outscored 183-66.

He left Wisconsin complaining about the inability to pay assistant coaches. He and Wisconsin AD Barry Alvarez didn't speak for years afterward, though they've patched things up now.

USA Today wrote in 2012 he was smart to get out while the getting was good:

College football is cyclical. Most programs reach a certain point, level off, then decline and start the cycle all over again. With Michigan back on the rise and Ohio State almost there already under Meyer, this stretch of football was as good as it could get for Wisconsin. Three Rose Bowls in a row may never happen again in the entire history of the school. ...

So Bielema played this exactly right. He gave Wisconsin seven years, brought the program to its ceiling and left before bumping his head on it. Now he's got a new challenge at a school with plenty of resources and a fan base that will unite behind him. It's a fresh start, and a lucrative one at that.

Andersen left complaining that he couldn't get players into Wisconsin that he wanted.

Chryst seems like he's never complained about anything a day in his life.

Bielema and Andersen don't have jobs.

Chryst is in the Big Ten Championship with at least the best Wisconsin team since Bielema's 12-1 debut in 2006, maybe since Alvarez's Rose Bowl champion in 1999 that finished No. 4 in the polls.

Karma. Wisconsin style.