Category: Opinion

Anyone with more than one clock in the kitchen can sympathize with the confusion at the end of Tuesday night?s men?s basketball game between Michigan State and the Badgers. Of course, the stakes were a bit higher at the Kohl Center than when you?re trying to hit the sweet spot getting a pizza out of the oven. Apparently the officials had no choice but to go with the clock that showed time had run out just prior to Ryan Evans? improbable bank shot that would have tied the game for Wisconsin. According to another ? unofficial ? clock, Evans got the shot off in time. In the end, it didn?t matter. The official clock said Wisconsin lost, and that was that.

It was one little line buried at the bottom of the University of Wisconsin men?s basketball box score, but it stood out even more than Jordan Taylor?s 10 assists or UW-Green Bay?s 32.1 percent shooting. Attendance: 17,076. It had been 143 games, dating back to 2003, since the attendance total at a Badgers home game was anything but 17,230, which is the Kohl Center?s official capacity for basketball.

….Whatever the reason, UW is finding it harder to sell tickets. And while there’s nothing UW can do about the economy, athletic department officials would be wise to start treating the paying customers with more respect because, ultimately, they’re the ones carrying the wallets.

The Big Ten Conference might not have been the equal of the SEC this football season, but it was infinitely more interesting. While LSU beat Alabama by the speed-inducing score of 9-6 in the SEC?s game of the year, the Big Ten had some national powers crumbling, some recovering and one getting its eyes opened in its first year in the conference. It had iconic coaches bounced unceremoniously from their jobs. It had down-to-the-wire races in the two new divisions, even if no one can remember their names.

….The refusal of these pillars of the Penn State community to act on their knowledge and their callous disregard for the victims since Sandusky?s arrest last week have resulted in a mad scramble to pin the blame on someone, or everyone, at the school. However, the truth is we are all a little bit to blame for this mess because we are the ones who exalt college sports figures and encourage them to think they are above the law.

….For years, athletic and school administrators, local and university police, alumni and fans have served as enablers for college coaches and players by sweeping their dirt under the rug in the name of the program. That has created a culture of entitlement in which coaches think they are no longer bound by the rules of society.

This year was supposed to provide rare clarity for Big Ten Conference football. Nebraska became the 12th team, the Big Ten split into divisions and a conference championship game was instituted. Unlike five of the previous nine years, there would be no shared Big Ten title and thus no debate over which team should represent the conference in the Rose Bowl. Instead of clarity, however, the Big Ten has produced chaos.

There was a time in University of Wisconsin football history ? not that long ago, in fact ? when a No. 6 ranking in the first Bowl Championship Series standings of the season would have led to much rejoicing. This week, it was greeted with mostly groaning and grumbling. Perhaps UW fans are just practicing up for the chorus of boos they?ll unleash on the powers that be if the Badgers march through the season without a loss and don?t get a chance to play for a national title.