Just when you think you’ve got things figured out, something crazy happens.
This fall season of Wisconsin sports has taken just about every possible direction on about every playing field. Just when we thought the UW football team was primed for greatness (it still might be), a seemingly unimaginable road loss to then-unranked Oregon State woke all types of Badgers from their success-filled slumber.
It was a multi-year hibernation from mediocrity for the Wisconsin football program, and its early season struggles – taken in the context of following two Rose Bowl appearances – were given plenty of coverage from all outlets.
As I have pointed out once already this semester, there are plenty of venues other than the illustrious Camp Randall that display everything UW athletics has to offer. My fellow associate sports editor Nick Daniels even went on to lay out the worthy argument that many non-revenue sports were worthy of greater attention on campus.
That was Sept. 24 – less than a week before the football team would lose its first conference game to Nebraska – and at the time, you couldn’t blame him. Non-revenue sports were in the midst of their most dominating season in recent memory. A stumbling football squad didn’t hurt their case either.
Just when Daniels thought he had it all figured out, similar to many other Wisconsin Badgers aficionados, the calendar flipped months and the UW athletics script flipped like a Saturday morning pancake.
A pair of conference victories and an impending date with the Legends Division champion has university athletics back to its former state of a football-dominated fan base. Non-rev sports had their chance at what looked like a great 2012 season, but eventually the perils of stiffer competition have caught up with them, and uncharacteristically, each team has dropped off their early pace, some of them in stunning fashion.
Just like any great underdog story, the most surprising of non-rev successors often finds the saddest ending.
Wisconsin’s volleyball team flew through its non-conference schedule, going 12-1, winning a pair of weekend tournaments and losing its only match to Creighton, a Top-30 team in the RPI rankings. Then the Badgers met the Big Ten and quickly found they play in one of the best conferences in the nation. Reality hit hard.
Wisconsin lost four of its first five Big Ten matches, and after Minnesota added another sweep of the Badgers, a 3-6 record in conference play and an eighth place standing materialized to the surprise of everyone. Midseason aspirations that included a top-25 finish and the first NCAA tournament appearance since 2007 now appear curbed.
Equally as surprising a start to the season came from the Wisconsin women’s soccer team, only to unravel as well.
The Badgers ran into the rankings as they started the season 6-1 and found themselves rated No. 13 in the nation. One loss to then-No. 2 UCLA kept UW from a perfect record before things fell apart. Penn State tripped up Wisconsin in its first conference game and the Badgers tumbled, winning just one of their next six matches.
A recent three-game winning streak has served as the Badgers’ parachute, saving them from their three-week free fall. Three conference games remain, and anything less than two victories places them in danger of missing out on the Big Ten tournament, once thought of as a sure thing.
Just when things might look gloomy for non-revenue sports at Wisconsin, an easy way of generating excitement is to lean on the team we have always counted on, the team we all knew would have success, regardless of its competition or expectations: the men’s cross country team.
This team has won 13-straight conference championships. It won the national title last year and was a shoe-in for yet another national championship run. The most reliable of athletic programs in the past decade recently placed 17th at the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational, however. Over the past four years, the lowest Wisconsin has ever placed in an event was seventh.
The season is long from over, and some of the team’s best runners have been battling injuries, but whenever a team drops from No. 1 in the nation to No. 20 like the Badgers did Oct. 15, disappointment might be brewing.
And as the winter sports begin their seasons, a similarly reliable team has slipped from its expected stature. The women’s hockey squad started the season ranked No. 2 in the nation, returning one of the best players in the nation in Brianna Decker.
Wisconsin swept through Minnesota State and Lindenwood in its first four games without a loss but went winless during a weekend set against unranked Minnesota-Duluth. The team’s season remains as young as ever, but the towering expectations from the preseason are beginning to look a bit lofty.
The sunny side to the rises and falls of non-revenue teams is none of their seasons has come to a close yet, although their opportunities to shine outside the shadow of UW football probably have.
Even though for most of the year they compete with the football team for the attention, the non-revenue sports teams may have to pay a little attention themselves and take a lesson from the team in Camp Randall and turn things around.
Sean is a junior majoring in journalism. Have a thought on the column? Email him at [email protected] or tweet @sean_zak.
