Category: Athletics

Paul Chryst noted a disturbing trend during pre-season camp.

More often than he could accept, Chryst saw the University of Wisconsin offense treat trips into the red zone carelessly.

Fans won’t have a problem seeing the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team play this season.

Almost every Badgers game will be broadcast on one of the ESPN networks, CBS or the Big Ten Network. A significant amount of their games will be shown on CBS, ESPN or ESPN2, the Big Tenâ??s most-watched partners.

StubHub has struck multiyear deals with the University of Wisconsin and the University of Washington, its first college deals in more than a year.

Washington recently finished a two-year deal with RazorGator, while Wisconsin has operated a lightly used, face-value-only resale window for athletic program donors in conjunction with Paciolan. That offering will still exist, but StubHub will gain significant exposure throughout campus sports facilities â?? including Camp Randall Stadium as well as team-affiliated media â?? as a Proud Sponsor of Wisconsin athletics.

If you want to be a Badger, it doesn’t get much better than today.
Wisconsin’s red and white are expected to clobber the blue and gold Akron Zips in the football season opener at Camp Randall.
The weatherman predicts an almost perfect day: mostly sunny with a light breeze and high temperature in the mid-80s.

There is no way to accurately to measure the character and the potential impact of every student-athlete that comes through the University of Wisconsin, but there is one certainty.

The bar sits somewhere in the vicinity of Troy Vincent.

He was a cornerback and kick returner for the Badgers during one of their darkest football periods â?? just nine wins in four years from 1988 to ’91 â?? but he persevered to be an All-American.

He thought so highly of his experience in Madison that he endowed a football scholarship, valued at $250,000, at UW.

For the better part of the 21st century, those in the University of Wisconsin Athletic Department have been trying to bring a sense of decorative order and honor to UW’s sports history.

That’s especially the case in football, where bronze statues have risen from concrete, uniform numbers have been retired and grainy images that date back to the 1880s have been enlarged and put under display lights inside refurbished Camp Randall Stadium.

The University of Wisconsin came up short in its bid to host NCAA men’s hockey regionals in 2010 and 2011.

That’s due largely to a trend toward hosting such events on NHL-size rinks at off-campus facilities in neutral cities, but in Badger hockey circles could also be interpreted as another reaction to Wisconsin’s success in the West regional in Madison last spring.

The upcoming Labor Day holiday and start of the school year brings some service and route changes to the Metro bus system.

For Badger football fans heading to Camp Randall Stadium Saturday, Metro won’t be operating shuttle buses, with Kobussen Buses taking over.

….On Tuesday, Sept. 2, Route 80 buses, one of the main routes serving the UW campus, will detour to Walnut St. and Marsh Rd. because of ongoing construction.

Rookie guard Jolene Anderson, cut by the Sun on Wednesday to make room for the signing of Svetlana Abrosimova, told the Duluth, Minn., News Tribune that she’s excited to see what’s next for her career.

“The WNBA is a business, and it was a great three months with the Sun, but you just have to move on,” said Anderson, the University of Wisconsin’s all-time leading scorer. (2nd item.)

MADISON, Wis. — Charter Cable subscribers should have Big 10 Network on their TVs by now, and that means fans will be able to see Saturday’s University of Wisconsin football game.

A charter spokesman said crews worked around the clock to get it online, and it was scheduled to premiere by 5 p.m.

“When they had an agreement with Comcast — basically the line is set, this is what the price is going to be, you’re not going to get a better deal than Comcast and that’s the deal you’ll get — I think it made it easier for everyone else,” said UW Athletic Director Barry Alvarez.

They were teammates, proud members of what one college football analyst labeled the “worst team ever to play in the Rose Bowl.”

For a short time this weekend, the members of the University of Wisconsinâ??s 1998 Big Ten Conference championship team will reunite in Madison to celebrate a special anniversary.

Charter Communications, with extensive cable operations in Wisconsin, has reached a deal with the Big Ten Network to carry Big Ten Conference sports programming.

As was the case with this weekâ??s agreement with Time Warner Cable, the deal covers several years, though neither company said for how long.

In a joint statement, the Big Ten Network and Charter said they were working together in an attempt to ensure that the majority of the systems that Charter operates â??can launch the network on its expanded basic level of service in time for Saturdayâ??s Big Ten college openers.â?

MADISON (WKOW) — University of Wisconsin Badger football fans can breathe a little easier. Beginning this season, Charter Cable will offer the Big Ten Network.

Wednesday’s announcement ended a year-long negotiation. Now sports fans are ecstatic.

Football season is about to start at Camp Randall Stadium, so it must be time to roll out the road construction barrels.

This season, however, there shouldn’t be as many headaches for football fans trying to get to the first game of the season this Saturday between the University of Wisconsin and Akron, as one arterial street heading into campus is now open and construction on another main conduit to the stadium should be finished weeks ahead of schedule.

To a degree, recruiting in college athletics is like dominos. Once one school stretches the boundaries, others are sure to fall in line to avoid being left behind.

In college hockey, the boundary that’s being redefined is the age that is too young to be recruited. It took a new form last week when Jordan Schmaltz — a 14-year-old defenseman who’s about to start his freshman year at Verona Area High School — verbally committed to the University of Wisconsin, accepting the team’s offer of a full scholarship.

It got people talking because it’s rare in hockey for a player who hasn’t even entered ninth grade to be already at the endpoint of the recruiting process instead of at the beginning.

“The future belongs to those who believe in the power of their dreams.”

— Eleanor Roosevelt

Reflecting on the path that his life has taken, and the aforementioned quotation, Troy Vincent remembered going one-on-one with Barry Alvarez shortly after Alvarez took over a floundering University of Wisconsin football program.

….Vincent, the supremely confident athlete, was named to five Pro Bowls. But that doesn’t come close to matching the accomplishments of Vincent, the supremely confident businessman and philanthropist, who will be inducted Friday evening into the UW Athletic Hall of Fame. “It’s a tremendous honor, and it goes right to top of my highlight list,” Vincent said, “because Madison is where it all started.”

Ron Dayne enjoys a celebration as much as the next tailback. But the 1999 Heisman winner hadn’t planned to be here this weekend for the reunion of the 1998 and 1999 University of Wisconsin football teams.

Nothing personal. Dayne still stays in touch with some of his former teammates, like Donnel Thompson and Cecil Martin.

But instead of attending a Friday night reception at Heritage Hall — honoring the ’98 and ’99 Big Ten champions and Rose Bowl winners — he was hoping to be in an NFL training camp.

After 18 months, and only days before the start of the Big Ten football season, Time Warner Cable and the Big Ten Network finally found common ground.

The result is a multi-year deal that will put the year-old network on Time Warnerâ??s expanded basic cable system for high definition and video-on-demand programming, and allow University of Wisconsin sports fans to watch hundreds of hours of Big Ten sports events.

Charter Communications, with extensive cable operations in Wisconsin, has reached a deal with the Big Ten Network to carry Big Ten sports programming.

The Big Ten Network is making a strong push to get in as many homes as possible by this weekend’s football kickoff.
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Monday night’s announcement that the network had reached an agreement-in-principle with Time Warner Cable solidified most of Ohio and Wisconsin, and it was reported by Multichannel.com last week that MediaCom was on the verge of locking up the network for Iowa.

MADISON, Wis. — Charter Communications is actively negotiating with the Big Ten Network and an announcement about a possible deal to bring college games to local cable subscribers could come as soon as Tuesday afternoon, according to a spokesman with the cable provider.

“I cannot confirm that a deal has been done, but we are very close,” said Charter spokesman John Miller.

Charter Communications Tuesday said it appears close to an agreement with the Big Ten Network that would let the Madison-area cable TV provider broadcast Badgers games.

The announcement came a day after Time Warner Cable reached a deal with the network.

“I can confirm we are in pretty active negotiations and discussions with them. I can’t confirm that a deal has been crafted yet,” John Miller, director of communications for Charter’s Central Division, said Tuesday.

I couldn’t believe it when I heard Travis Beckum was left off Playboy’s 2008 All-American team. I had to see for myself. Luckily, a representative from the magazine sent a copy of the September edition to the office so I could review it.

Time Warner Cable and the Big Ten Network, a year-old network featuring Big Ten sports, announced Monday that they had reached an agreement-in-principle on a carriage agreement for high definition and video-on-demand programming.

Columbus- Time Warner Cable customers can watch Ohio State’s season opener against Youngstown State on Saturday. Apparently, name-calling is part of negotiating in the cable world.

Three days after a public exchange between the companies that ended with the Big Ten Network calling a Time Warner proposal a “publicity stunt,” the sides reached an agreement Monday night to distribute the Big Ten Network on expanded basic cable in the eight Big Ten states. That includes nearly 1 million subscribers in Northeast Ohio. The deal came five days short of the network’s one-year anniversary and includes high-definition and video-on-demand programming.

Time Warner Cable on Friday sent a letter to University of Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez, offering to broadcast upcoming UW football games against the University of Akron and Marshall University on a pay-per-view basis, with the proceeds from the games going to UW.

Bill Howard, the only member of the Badgers’ six men’s hockey national championships, has resigned from his position as assistant and goaltending coach.

Howard spent 36 years with the Badgers. He coached eight players at UW who received All-American status as well as Mike Richter, who will be inducted into the USA Hockey Hall of Fame in October.

UW, which opens the college football season Saturday against visiting Akron, has gone eight seasons without winning a Big Ten title.

Since UWâ??s last crown in 1999, seven Big Ten teams have won at least a share of the league title. The three teams in addition to UW that have been on the outside looking in are Minnesota, Michigan State and Indiana.

As quarterback Allan Evridge entered the McClain Center Sunday night after practice, a member of the University of Wisconsin athletic communications staff alerted him that he was about to swarmed by reporters.

Evridge a fifth-year senior who was speaking to reporters for the first time since being named the starter for the opener Saturday against Akron, quietly said:

â??Iâ??ve done this before.â?

Bill Howard, the only member of all six University of Wisconsin men’s hockey NCAA championship teams, is stepping down after 36 years as an assistant coach.

Howard, a longtime volunteer with the program, is credited with developing UW into “Goaltender U.” through his work with a series of accomplished backstops that includes Julian Baretta, Marc Behrend, Mike Richter, Curtis Joseph, Duane Derksen, Kirk Daubenspeck, Graham Melanson and Brian Elliott.

By shattering world records and winning eight out of eight possible gold medals, Michael Phelps has put swimming in the spotlight. but as NBC 15’s Michelle Riell reports, it’s also put more of an emphasis on the need for high tech swim wear at the collegiate level.

It’s an image many saw as it happened over the weekend, Michael Phelps making Olympic history. He did it wearing the new Speedo LZR Racer suite, which was designed by leading researchers and NASA to create 10% less drag in the water. Eric Hansen says, “Our sport changed, it’s a different sport now.” Hansen is the Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving Coach and the UW- Madison. He’s been watching the evolution of the sport and says if the NCAA will allow the new suits, the UW will be forced to wear them in order to stay competitive. Hansen says, “When these suits are ratified for NCAA use, it’s just going to go through the roof. Our record board will change from top to bottom. pretty rapidly.”

The Kobussen Buses in Sun Prairie all say “school bus” on the front and back of the vehicles, but on game day in Madison, they won’t be taking kids to school.

It will be taking fans to Badger home football games.

Kobussen is the new ‘Bucky Bus.’ A task Madison Metro provided for a number of years.

Three University of Wisconsin athletics building projects are included in the biennial budget that the UW System Board of Regents is considering Thursday, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the athletic department is any closer to breaking ground.

The proposed budget for 2009-11 includes a portion of the funding for the projects, which will not be paid for with tax dollars. Instead, the state would issue bonds that are to be repaid with athletic department revenue.

The budget asks for $28.1 million toward a $66.4 million athletic performance facility and renovation of the McClain Center; $19.4 million toward a $38.8 million hockey facility connected to the Kohl Center; and $3.8 million toward a $7.6 million improvement of tennis and softball facilities.

Did the groundbreaking performance of American swimmers in the Summer Olympics â?? specifically Michael Phelps â?? affect the men’s and women’s programs at UW-Madison?

Yes, and dramatically so.

Before he starts playing for a midget minor hockey team, before he even starts his first class at Verona Area High School, Jordan Schmaltz has a college hockey destination planned.

Schmaltz, a 14-year-old defenseman, gave University of Wisconsin coaches a verbal commitment last week, accepting an offer of a full scholarship more than four years before he can even start using it.

BEIJING â?? Former University of Wisconsin athlete Matt Tegenkamp qualified for the 5,000-meter Olympic track and field final on Wednesday morning, setting the stage for another showdown with naturalized countryman Bernard Lagat.

Tegenkamp sliced through the lead pack in the final straightaway to win in 13 minutes, 37.36 seconds, the fastest time in qualifying.