Guess who's back in jail?

This is a UW blog, so you know that the answer is going to be Booker Stanley, of course.

Bielema did the right thing by kicking him off the team. If there's any justice in the world he'll get a running back who makes an immediate, positive impact as a reward.

Good riddance, Metrodome

The University of Minnesota got smart, buckled down, and decided to move football back outdoors and on campus starting in 2009. Good for them. Even though the stadium is expected to seat under 50,000, and in all likelihood will be named "TCF Bank Stadium," Minnesota students will finally have an authentic football Saturday to look forward to.

In remembrance of the days at the old HHH Metrodome, Mike Lucas of the Capital Times submits this piece. Interestingly, the 2008 game -- the last to be played between the Golden Gophers and the Badgers at the Metrodome -- will be the rubber game of the series; since the teams started playing there, each has 6 wins over the other.

Taking tickets from the unruly mob

Andy Baggot provides food for thought (as he undoubtedly will for weeks and months to come) by bringing to light what appears to be a boneheaded move by the Wisconsin administration -- namely, linking the behavior of the users of student tickets to the ability of the student who purchased the ticket to use or purchase tickets in the future. That's a bit convoluted; what it appears to boil down to is as follows:

• If you, a student season ticket holder, are unruly during a sporting event, you will be barred from attending future events
• If you, a student season ticket holder, sell your ticket to an individual who is unruly during a sporting event, you, along with the individual in question, will be barred from attending future events
• The above does not actually apply, since there's no real way to track who did what when, unless of course you act up in line on the way to the venue

Let me get this straight: on Thursday afternoon, Starving Joe Student finds out he has the opportunity to go home for the weekend, where he can have exclusive use of a washing machine without a coin slot, a shower that functions by forcing pressurized water at a controllable temperature through a nozzle (as opposed to a glorified drip with unpredictable thermal output and, generally, the remnant of someone else's bad night out working its way between the toes), and food that requires neither a debit card nor a tungsten carbide-reinforced stomach lining. The problem is that he has to get rid of his football voucher before the family van pulls away from his dorm in less than 18 hours. Being the enterprising and impoverished individual he is, Starving Joe sells his voucher to the first person he finds who will pay him $10 over face value.

If that person is out of control during the game, this poor student could be just plain done with Badger Athletics for the remainder of his time at UW. How asinine.

But the whole idea appears to be doomed to failure, which is for the better. Good for the three student representatives on the Athletic Board who tried to vote the measure down.

I'm not Recruiting-Obsessive

... in that I don't salivate over the list of schools that a high schooler considers "in the running" for his matriculation. Nor do I grow distraught when said high schooler decides that my school isn't the place for him. His loss, really.

However, when a prospective student-athlete makes an oral commitment and backs out of it, well ... that does miff me. Luckily, though, in the desert of the off-season and in the wake of the Sam Gagner de-commitment, the Wisconsin State Journal's Andy Baggot has chased down Kyle Turris. Young Kyle has wisely decided to reassure the Badger faithful that yes, indeed, he will be a Badger in the 2007-8 season.

Good. That makes the half of me that cares somewhat about recruiting happy. The other half (which is the bigger half), the half that cares about how an athlete actually performs at UW, remains unperturbed.

It's the offseason ...

... and the young man who used to look forward to the liberation brought on by summer, having grown old, now curses it. The season that used to offer stretches of days and weeks at a time of beautiful weather and no responsibility now stands as an sun-soaked, unyielding obstacle, keeping football season -- which, really, is SO CLOSE -- from beginning.

Some of us are able to take refuge in baseball. I'm having a fortunate year; my team since birth (indeed, the first team for which I ever actively cheered), the Detroit Tigers, are having something of a prolonged, anomalous burst of success. As I write this, my team sits atop the Majors, and I couldn't be more excited. Hopefully they'll make a run toward the end of the season and will secure a place in the postseason -- but that's neither here nor there. My enthusiasm has caused me to ramble. The point was, baseball is wonderful, and great baseball can be exhilirating. But it's no college football. Of that you can be certain. What's better than 13 weeks of your school butting heads with its rivals, passing those all-important bragging rights on to you when they're successful? At what other time of year do Sunday through Friday lurch by slowly?

I'm looking forward to September.