Category: Athletics

ESPN?s Andy Katz is reporting the division breakdowns for the Big Ten Conference, which would begin in the 2011-12 season. According to Katz, Wisconsin will be in the same division with Ohio State and Penn State, but not with Minnesota, Michigan or Iowa.

No UW marching band in Las Vegas!? That is one of the things I look forward to when I go to Badger games.

Bud Selig, the commissioner of Major League Baseball and the former owner of the Milwaukee Brewers, has established an endowed chair at UW-Madison. The Allan H. Selig Chair in History will lead to a new faculty position in U.S. history that a university news release says “will focus on the relationship between sports and society from 1900 to the present.”

In a press conference Friday night at Miller Park, the home of the Milwaukee Brewers, officials also announced Hank Aaron?s Chasing the Dream Foundation and a trio of MLB owners have set up scholarships in honor of Selig and his wife, Suzanne, for UW-Madison students with financial need.

MADISON (WKOW) — Iowa Athletics Director Gary Barta told the Big Ten he wants the Hawkeye football team to play Wisconsin as much as possible in the newly realigned conference. Barta?s comments came in an Associated Press report, the day after Wisconsin Athletics Director Barry Alvarez told the Wisconsin State Journal that Iowa and Wisconsin would be in separate divisions in the new-look Big Ten.

Surviving the dog days of February isn?t the easiest task for any men?s college basketball team.Wisconsin?s 2010-?11 Big Ten Conference schedule, released Thursday, includes an early-February gantlet that would test any team.

As Big Ten fans await the conference?s division make-up starting in 2011, one thing is apparent: rivalries are likely going to be the big losers. Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez told the Wisconsin State Journal that his Badgers will not be placed in the same division as rival Iowa.

University of Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez confirmed Wednesday that when a two-division format for football is unveiled by league officials next month, UW and Iowa will be separated.

MILWAUKEE ? Bud Selig worried about this day for several weeks, leading up to seeing his statue for the first time.

?Given the guy didn?t have much to work with because I was never confused with Clark Gable, I thought he did a masterful job,? Selig said at the unveiling Tuesday. ?I thought he captured me really remarkably well.? The former Milwaukee Brewers owner who became baseball commissioner was honored with a bronze, 7-foot statue in front of Miller Park.

The University of Wisconsin football team?s offensive line underwent a major shuffle on Monday. The question now is, was it due to injuries or performances? UW coach Bret Bielema provided the answer after the evening practice, saying it was because of injuries.

Wisconsin strong safety Jay Valai, all of 5-foot-9 and 205 pounds, tries to exude toughness each time he steps onto the football field.

Like his Wisconsin teammates, the fifth-year senior can live with just about any criticism except being called soft.”It?s football, that tough-guy mentality,” Valai said Monday morning after UW opened its third and final week of preseason camp. “You don?t want to be looked at as soft.”

That fear is why Valai recently concealed a concussion from the coaches and medical staff. “I was wrong,” said Valai, who vowed to return to practice this week.

University of Illinois at Chicago Director of Athletics Jim Schmidt announced today that Howard Moore, a University of Wisconsin assistant coach who helped the Badgers to five straight NCAA tournament berths, has been hired as the 10th head men?s basketball coach in UIC history.

Thousands of runners will descend on Madison Saturday morning for the second annual Madison Mini-Marathon, so motorists should be on the lookout for traffic delays at various times and in various locations. The race begins at 7 a.m. at the UW-Madison Memorial Union, winds around the Capitol Square, heads west to Lake Wingra and the UW-Madison Arboretum, then north to the campus and back to the union. A shorter 5K race also begins at 7 a.m. at the Union and ends at the Union, basically using campus streets for the route.

A new lucrative contract between the University of Wisconsin-Madison?s athletic department and Adidas America Inc. is another step closer to taking effect. A committee of the university?s Board of Regents approved the new contract on Thursday. The full board is expected to pass it on Friday.

The UW-Madison athletic department?s licensing contract with Adidas America is about to get sweeter for both sides. A proposal up for approval by the Board of Regents this week would extend the company?s contract to supply Wisconsin?s 23 athletic teams with equipment, apparel and footwear through 2016 and give Adidas added exclusivity.

Wisconsin athletic officials are asking for a $76.8 million athletic performance center in the next two-year state budget, five years after a $109.5-million expansion of Camp Randall Stadium.The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents will review the request Thursday.

Even though Eagles Nest Ice Arena rink manager Peter Johnson had known Mark Burish for years, he was a little surprised at the voicemail he got last week.

Burish told Johnson that his son, Adam, a player on the 2010 Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks and a former UW player, wanted to bring Lord Stanley?s Cup, aka. the Holy Grail, to Verona on Tuesday.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison athletic department?s licensing contract with Adidas America Inc. is about to get sweeter for both sides.

A proposal up for approval by the Board of Regents this week would extend the company?s contract to supply Wisconsin?s 23 athletic teams with equipment, apparel and footwear through 2016 and give Adidas added exclusivity.

Under the agreement, the wholesale price of goods provided by Adidas would increase from $950,000 this year to $1.3 million next year and nearly $1.38 million in 2015. The company?s annual cash payments to the department would jump from $450,000 to $850,000 next year, and to $900,000 in the final three years of the deal.

HOUSTON, Tx. (WKOW) — Police in Houston are still looking for the person who shot a former Badger quarterback. Investigators originally said Lionell Crawford was shot in the stomach Friday night when someone tried to steal his car. But now police say there was no carjacking at all. According to the Houston Chronicle, Crawford is out of intensive care. Crawford is the head football coach at a high school in Houston. He played for the Badgers from 1988-1990 and 1992.

A two-time captain of the Badgers who attended Madison Edgewood High School, Adam Burish has brought the Stanley Cup to his hometown and its many hockey fans.

In a survey of the cost of single-game college football tickets for 2010, the Oregonian newspaper determined that of the major conferences, the Big Ten charges on average the most for its low-demand tickets.

Howard Moore, an assistant under Wisconsin men?s basketball coach Bo Ryan for the past five seasons, is among a group of finalists for the head coaching job at Illinois-Chicago.A UW source confirmed Monday night Moore remained in the running for the job.

Bret Bielema seems to have learned that it?s better to embrace, rather than stiff-arm, the media, and the result is more national publicity for him and his team.

Wisconsin junior defensive end J.J. Watt thought he?d spend a quiet night at home on Friday preparing for the first double session of preseason camp the next day.

Then he checked his cell phone for messages. First, Watt noticed a curious text message from his mother, wondering why he hadn?t told her he was being switched to defensive tackle. Then he checked his voice mail.”I had like 25 messages on my phone,” Watt said Sunday during UW?s annual media day. “My Twitter (page) was blowing up. I guess it was on the news.”

Watt?s alleged position change was reported by one Madison TV station, based on a six-word tweet on his Twitter page. The tweet read: “Is officially a D tackle now.”

What wasn?t known initially was that the post was a joke.

Olympic silver medalist Jessie Vetter, who won three NCAA women?s hockey championships at the University of Wisconsin, has been hired as director of hockey for Athletic Republic, a national training network with a facility at the MAC Center in Verona.

Erik Smith calls it a pipeline. If so, Otis Merrill had the chance to cap the pipe before it even began to flow.

Merrill transferred from Wisconsin to Illinois State before the 2009 season and helped the Redbirds to their first winning season since 2006 with 22 tackles.When three fellow former Badgers had a similar idea, Merrill offered a ?come on down? and not a ?don?t do it.?

The veteran NHL defenseman is returning to work for the Detroit Red Wings the franchise he helped win two Stanley Cups.

The University of Wisconsin will open the college football season on the top 10 looking in, at least in one poll. The Badgers were ranked No. 12 in the USA Today Preseason Top 25 coaches poll released today. They were the third-highest Big Ten Conference team behind Ohio state (No. 2) and Iowa (No. 1).

The inaugural Big Ten Conference football championship game will be played in Indiana. The Big Ten announced Thursday it has chosen Lucas Oil Stadium in downtown Indianapolis as the site for the 2011 game. A date was not announced.

The Big Ten and the Indiana Sports Corp. will spend the next 30 days working out details of the one-year deal. After that, the Big Ten will conduct thorough research to determine future locations.

Wisconsin is ranked No. 12 in the USA Today top 25 preseason football poll, released Friday morning.

CHICAGO ? Jay Valai?s career will be over by the time the Big Ten Conference officially includes 12 teams and splits into two divisions for football. Still, the University of Wisconsin senior safety cringes at the thought of the Badgers not being in the same division as traditional rivals Minnesota and Iowa.

Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema wanted to snatch the words out of the air as soon as they escaped his lips.

“I felt terrible,” Bielema acknowledged Tuesday on the second day of the Big Ten Conference preseason football meetings.On a nondescript day last winter, Bielema encountered tailback John Clay in the UW locker room. Clay was between ankle surgeries that prevented him from running and was overweight.

Bielema glanced at the 6-foot-1 Clay and joked he looked like right tackle Josh Oglesby, who is listed at 335 pounds.

CHICAGO ? Big Ten Conference commissioner Jim Delany was uncommonly revealing Monday, saying there will be no name change for the Big Ten despite the addition of Nebraska in 2011, there almost certainly will be a conference championship game in football next year, divisional alignment will be determined in 30 to 45 days and adding a ninth conference game won?t happen immediately but probably will within a few years.

But not even the conference?s all-powerful commissioner had an answer for everything at first day of the Big Ten?s football media get-together.

The Big Ten Conference should hold its first football title game in 2011 thanks to the addition of Nebraska, with a site to be determined. The conference also should have divisions in place for football sometime within the next 30 to 45 days, appears headed for a nine-game league schedule in perhaps 2013, and appears content to stay at 12 schools for the foreseeable future.

Stepping down from the podium at this time last year, the University of Wisconsin?s Bret Bielema a bit surprised. He was the only Big Ten head football coach who didn?t use his allotted 15-minute time slot?not by choice, but by the lack of interest his team had generated in coming off a 7-6 season.

Safe to say, things are much different this year.

Commissioner Jim Delany expects the Big Ten to hold a championship game next season, when Nebraska joins and brings the league to 12 members.

University of Wisconsin running back John Clay might be the returning offensive player of the year in the Big Ten Conference. But the media still chose Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor as the preseason player of the year in balloting prior to the football media days, which begin today in Chicago. And the Badgers might have sky-high expectations this season — being picked in the top 10 of several early polls — but they still are picked to finish third behind Ohio State and Iowa.

The 2010 Big Ten Conference preseason football poll looks exactly as most analysts predicted: No. 1 Ohio State, No. 2 Iowa and No. 3 Wisconsin.

If you didn?t get a chance to have a personal moment with the Stanley Cup when it was in Madison earlier this year, Adam Burish will accommodate you. Burish, the former UW men?s hockey captain, helped the Chicago Blackhawks win the Cup earlier this summer. As per tradition, every member of the NHL championship club gets to have the legendary trophy for a day.

The “Big Ten + Two” ? that?s what the name of the league the Wisconsin Badger football team now plays in should be. The addition of Nebraska is solid, but they could have brought in more money and exposure from the East Coast TV market with the likes of Pittsburgh. That would have been a good match-up with Penn State each year.

?It?s always great to be back in Madison,? says former Wisconsin Badger and current NBA star Devin Harris. ?It?s familiarity territory. I really like to look around every time I?m here to see how things have changed ? see the things that are here when I was here and things that they are building up. I think the campus has really taken on a life of it?s own.