Category: Athletics

Although Florida Citrus Sports officials won’t know until Sunday night which Southeastern Conference teams will be available to pair against the University of Wisconsin in the Capital One Bowl, their options are somewhat clearer this week.

“By the end of Saturday, we’re going to have two teams, whoever loses the SEC championship game and LSU,” said Matt Repchak, an official from Florida Citrus Sports, which oversees the Capital One Bowl and Champs Sports Bowl. “Whoever gets taken off the board before our pick, the other team is going to be our (likely) choice.”

Stretching for miles in every direction, the tailgate party at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge on the Friday night before the Thanksgiving weekend football game looked like a backyard cookout imagined by Cecil B. DeM

If University of Wisconsin football coach Bret Bielema is being approached for other jobs, it’s news to his boss.UW athletic director Barry Alvarez said Tuesday that he has not been approached by any school seeking permission to talk to Bielema.

People are starting to take notice of the University of Wisconsin women’s basketball team.

The Badgers, who take a 6-0 record into tonight’s game at California Riverside, received 20 votes in the most recent Associated Press Top 25 poll that came out Monday. Texas Tech, which is ranked 25th, had 77 votes.

Three Big Ten Conference teams are ranked in the poll: Ohio State (No. 6), Purdue (No. 9) and Michigan State (No. 20).The Buckeyes, Boilermakers and Badgers are all undefeated.

Construction work on the University of Wisconsin campus is expected to cause delays tonight (Tuesday) for men’s basketball fans who plan to use the parking ramps nearest to the Kohl Center for a 6:30 p.m. game against Florida State.

Between drunken students shouting profanities and lactating mothers, which is more offensive at a Badger football game? Arguably the former, yet earlier this fall, some breast-feeding Badger fans got the impression that the latter caused more offense.

Barry Alvarez isn’t prowling the sideline any longer for the University of Wisconsin football team but his name still has value.

This year alone, Alvarez, who is UW’s athletic director, stands to make more than $175,000 in outside income, ranging from speeches to major corporations, autograph signings, and radio and television appearances. That comes on top of his $500,000 annual salary as athletic director, as well as the $100,000 he receives each year through the Mendota Gridiron Club and the National W Club.

With interest nationally in the Bowl Championship Series, Alvarez has positioned himself as a national expert on the topic. Fox Sports is paying Alvarez $55,000 to be its go-to guy for commentary on the upcoming BCS bowl games. But there is more, according to records on file with the UW Athletic Department.

The UW Athletic Department will re-evaluate its policy on breast feeding in Camp Randall at the end of the season, after a breast-feeding mother was denied the option of pumping her milk in the stadium�s first-aid station earlier this fall.

The Badger men’s basketball team defeats Auburn 77-63 to give coach Bo Ryan victory No. 500.

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. ââ?¬â? Flamboyant Cincinnati wide receiver Chad Johnson looked an awfully lot like Buffalo’s Lee Evans last week during the Bengals’ game in New Orleans.
Mr. Ocho Cinco scored a touchdown, nonchalantly dropped the ball, and jogged back to the sidelines. What a concept.

Although Larry Coker was fired Friday morning after six seasons as head football coach at Miami and Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez’s name has again been linked to the school because of his relationship with Miami’s school president, Donna Shalala, sources indicate Alvarez is staying at UW.

Donna Shalala gets it. As chancellor at Wisconsin or now as president at Miami, she understands the tremendous ancillary value of a successful sports program at a major university.

University of Wisconsin coach Pete Waite already has a good scouting report on the women’s volleyball teams coming to UW this week for the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament.

The host and 10th-seeded Badgers (24-6) meet Notre Dame (18-13) in the second match Friday night at the UW Field House, about 7 p.m. UW ousted then-No. 9 Notre Dame, 3-2, in the 2005 NCAA regional semifinals.

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas – Those who have seen many of the games that Bo Ryan has coached over the past 23 years were perplexed when they were asked which one of his 499 victories best defined his career.

….Consistency certainly has been the hallmark of Ryan’s success during a career that will reach a great milestone with his next victory. Consistency certainly has been the hallmark of Ryan’s success during a career that will reach a great milestone with his next victory. If the 7th-ranked Badgers (4-0) defeat Missouri State (3-0) Friday during a South Padre Island Invitational game here, it will be his 500th.

The well-wisher called to pass along his congratulations Tuesday on a “job well done” only to be interrupted by University of Wisconsin head coach Bret Bielema, who had something else on his mind.

The University of Wisconsin football team officially crossed off another one of its 2006 season goals Tuesday when it accepted a bid to play in the Capital One Bowl on Jan. 1 in Orlando, Fla.

The UW Athletic Department could save a lot of money on expenses for the football team’s trip to Orlando, Fla., to play in the Capital One Bowl on Jan. 1.

In an effort to raise money for Gilda’s Club Madison, University of Wisconsin women’s basketball coach Lisa Stone and her husband, Ed, will donate 25 cents to the organization for every fan who attends the Badgers’ game against Minnesota Jan. 28 at the Kohl Center.

Madison – The University of Wisconsin, which finally broke through against the Southeastern Conference last season, will get another opportunity to measure its game against a quality SEC team.

As expected, UW on Tuesday was released from Bowl Championship Series consideration and quickly accepted an invitation to play in the Capital One Bowl on Jan. 1 in Orlando, Fla.

Madison – An 11-1 record, including 7-1 in the Big Ten Conference, and a place in the top 10 of the major polls proves the University of Wisconsin is in the midst of one of the more memorable football seasons in its history.

And the future may bring greater achievements.

Bret Bielema, just the sixth rookie head coach in NCAA history to guide his team to 11 victories, has been named the Dave McClain Big Ten Coach of the Year in a vote of league media, the Big Ten Conference announced Tuesday.

Bret Bielema continues to cling to the minuscule chance that the University of Wisconsin can land a Bowl Championship Series at-large berth.

Airfare, a four night stay at the team hotel, your ticket to the big bowl game, all are included in the deluxe travel package offered by the wisconsin Alumni association.

“It is for alumni and fans and anyone that would care to be part of the official university tour,” says Paula Bonner with the Wisconsin Alumni Association.

But there’s one catch.

I’m a Pat Richter fan. I’m also a fan of Barry Alvarez. Both have been honored this year for their contributions to University of Wisconsin athletics.

There is another great Badger deserving of honor.

The waiting should end soon.

Officials from Florida Citrus Sports, who attended the game against Buffalo, likely will extend UW an invitation to the News Year’s Day Capital One Bowl in Orlando as soon as the Badgers are “released” from BCS consideration. That could happen today. The Badgers would face a Southeastern Conference foe. The possible SEC opponents include: Florida (10-1), Arkansas (10-1) and LSU (9-2).

MADISON � As strange as it sounds, Brian Butch missing a late first-half dunk might actually be a good thing.

At least it gives his University of Wisconsin men’s basketball teammates a different reason to rib him than the one that’s sure to lead to a barrage of playful bards.

Almost every week, the Texans are reminded how they may have gotten it exactly right with their 2006 draft class. For instance, Owen Daniels.

They spent four seasons looking for the perfect tight end. They signed and drafted tight ends. They scouted countless others. They always ended up with guys who either couldn’t catch or couldn’t block or couldn’t stay healthy.

Despite being poised to finish the regular season at 11-1 and probably no worse than No. 9 in the Bowl Championship Series standings, the University of Wisconsin will need a miracle, akin to Moses parting the Red Sea, to secure a BCS bowl berth.

At least 42 coaches made $1 million, according to their most recent income information, before bonuses and other perks are added. The best pay is in the highest-profile conferences, including the Big Ten, where Ohio State and Michigan will meet Saturday as the nation’s top-ranked teams.

Alando Tucker and Brian Butch are gracing the cover of Sports Illustrated this week as part of the magazine’s college basketball preview edition.

Sports Illustrated is doing regional covers with the theme “Big is Back,” and a posed shot of Wisconsin’s Tucker and Butch is one of them.

With John Stocco’s status for the regular-season finale Saturday against Buffalo uncertain, Tyler Donovan is poised to make his second start.

Former University of Wisconsin running back Booker Stanley was put on probation for seven years Monday and ordered to spend another year in the county jail for sexually assaulting, choking and battering his former girlfriend.

The UW football team�s slow and steady climb up the polls took an impressive step this week, as the Badgers (7-1 Big Ten, 10-1 overall) used former national-title hopefuls Louisville, Texas, Auburn and California as footholds in their ascent to No. 9 in the Bowl Championship Series rankings. The ranking is Wisconsin�s highest in exactly two years�UW was also No. 9 in the Nov. 14, 2004 BCS poll.

Booker Stanley was in line to become the Wisconsin Badgers’ starting tailback this season, a member of a bowl-bound team that beat all expectations and will likely finish the year with just one loss.

University of Wisconsin football coach Bret Bielema and his former college teammates from Iowa always are giving each other grief about something.
That’s what buddies do.

Whether it’s lousy golf games, thinning hair or expanding waistlines, there’s never a shortage of ammunition.

Don’t expect an emotional outpouring from UW football coach Bret Bielema when he leads the No. 16 Badgers onto the field at Kinnick Stadium.

Strong safety Joe Stellmacher stood at the University of Wisconsin 47-yard line Saturday, extended his arms away from his sides and let out a primal scream.

The UW senior had just separated Iowa tight end Tony Moeaki from the football with a crushing third-down hit with 12 minutes 25 seconds left and the Badgers protecting a 10-point lead.

Iowa was forced to punt and although the Hawkeyes eventually turned a UW fumble into a touchdown to pull to within three points, Stellmacher’s hit typified the effort UW gave in the 24-21 victory to snap a four-game losing streak to the Hawkeyes.

Booker Stanley, the former University of Wisconsin running back facing a long prison term in connection with the assault of his ex-girlfriend, will be sentenced Monday afternoon in Dane County Circuit Court, a court official said Thursday.

One of the many cliches of college football is “the statement” that one team or player makes on the field.
But off the field some fans are making another statement that is hurting the game and the reputations of schools, including UW-Madison.

University of Wisconsin officials denied a published report that they tried to get the Badgers’ football game at Nevada-Las Vegas next season moved to Lambeau Field. But they acknowledged that a “third party” did contact UNLV to ask whether such a move would be possib

The Green Bay Packers have not given the University of Wisconsin permission to play a football game at Lambeau Field, team President John Jones said Thursday.

That came on the same day Wisconsin’s athletic department denied a published report that it was working to move one of its 2007 football games to Green Bay.

The NCAA’s president, Myles Brand, went on the offensive on Thursday, defending the academic performance of college athletes and criticizing people who he says have unfairly labeled athletes as poor students.

In a news conference in which the National Collegiate Athletic Association released its latest graduation-rate report, Mr. Brand said that some newspaper editorials had mischaracterized athletes’ classroom performance. That misinformation, he said, has given the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means the impression that athletes are not serious students. The committee has opened an investigation into college sports, focusing on both academic and financial issues (The Chronicle, September 22).

University of Wisconsin athletic department officials today denied a report they attempted to move the football team’s 2007 nonconference game against UNLV to Lambeau Field in Green Bay.

Madison – University of Wisconsin officials, bolstered by the success of the Frozen Tundra Hockey Classic in February, are trying to move UWs 2007 football game against Nevada-Las Vegas to Lambeau Field.

The Las Vegas Sun reported that UW officials had made two offers to move the game, set for Sept. 8 in Las Vegas, to Green Bay. The first offer was $1 million; the second $1.3 million.

The way Mike Hamrick sees it, playing a college football game on field turf is better than playing one on frozen tundra.

The UNLV athletic director recently received multiple offers from University of Wisconsin representatives, asking if he would consider selling next year’s Wisconsin-UNLV football game set for Sept. 8 to the Badgers, so it could be played at the “neutral field” site of Lambeau Stadium in Green Bay. The first offer was for $1 million. The second offer was for $1.3 million. Both times, Hamrick told the Wisconsin officials to take a Lambeau Leap. (Actually, he just politely said “no.”)