I can remember it like it was yesterday, though it has now traveled four years into the rear-view mirror.

Sitting … in the Lou … under The Arch … smoking high-school graduation stogies and talking to one of my hometown boys, who — for discretion’s sake — I’ll just call N. Elly.

“What the hell,” says Nell. “Why would you want to go to college in North Dakota?”

He had the state wrong, but the point was a decent one.

When a kid decides to go to college in Wisconsin — which looks on a map like it may as well be in the Yukon to a kid from St. Louis — questions naturally arise.

“What are you thinking?”

“Isn’t it really, really cold?”

“Do people actually even live up there?”

All valid.

But I had the answers in those days. There were plenty of reasons to come north. Academically, Wisconsin is a good school … There’s the lake … Constant all-campus party …

Really, though, there was only one answer.

“Have you seen the sports?”

The other schools I was considering were places like Miami of Ohio, Carleton, Northwestern and Georgetown. In the summer of 2000, compared to those colleges, Wisconsin looked like Mecca to a sports fan.

Two-straight Rose Bowl victories. A Frozen Four-caliber hockey team. A Final Four-caliber basketball team.

A more reasonable question was: Why not go to Wisconsin?

Well, it’s four years later and, with no Rose Bowls, Frozen Fours or Final Fours to celebrate, my logic may have been a bit skewed. It turns out that the academics, the lake and the partying have paid off a bit more than the athletics.

But this season, that’s all going to change. I can feel it.

For the first time since I’ve been in the great north, there is a legitimate chance this year that Wisconsin will have successful seasons in each of the big three college sports (successful being modestly defined as coming within a game or two of a national championship).

It’s not the best bet, I’ll admit. But it’s a legitimate possibility.

The Gridiron Badgers return All-American-contending starters up front on offense and defense, which should make them as hardnosed a team as any in the country. Scott Starks and Jimmy Leonhard looked like they were ready to shore up the secondary in the second half of last season, and — if Brandon Williams plays even half as well as he talks (which seems almost possible) — UW should have the Big Ten’s best receiving corps this side of Michigan.

Not to mention that tailback Anthony Davis looks like he could easily shoot for 2,500 yards and a Heisman this season.

The Ice Badgers return, bar none, the top sophomore class in the nation. As freshmen last season, Jake Dowell and Robbie “Hollywood” Earl turned themselves into one of the more productive playmaker/scorer tandems in the WCHA, Ryan Suter established himself as perhaps the top defensive-defenseman in the country, and Ross Carlson scored nearly a point per game after joining UW midseason.

Not to mention that senior netminder Bernd Brückler, who was cheated out of the Hobey Baker award (for college hockey’s top player) last season, should contend for it again this year.

The Hoops Badgers — in spite of Devin Harris’s early exit to the pros — managed to keep his heir-apparent at the point, Boo Wade, from making an early exit to prison. Alando Tucker (if he can stay healthy) looks primed to step in for Harris as UW’s leading scorer, Clayton Hanson is coming off a spectacular confidence-building run as the Big Ten foreign touring team’s leading scorer, and there’s no reason to believe that Zach Morley won’t provide even more scrap and grit this year than ever.

Not to mention that the Badgers will finally have a legit center (in Brian Butch) and a legit spot-up shooting guard (in Sharif Chambliss — assuming he’s healthy) on this year’s squad.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that I’m, in any way, overly optimistic that better will come to best. Living in Wisconsin for a couple years will freeze that kind of optimism out of you.

But, for now, forget about school and the lake, sit back and have a couple Jagerbombs and enjoy the buzz on campus surrounding what may well be a banner year in Wisconsin sports.