Badger Bits: UW athletics facility slated for new location

Howdy y'all, today brings us exactly four weeks away from 2011 Wisconsin football. And we've got August practices kicking into gear tomorrow afternoon at Camp Randall. It will be a big month of preparation for everyone on the cardinal and white, but especially for newly transferred senior quarterback Russell Wilson. With that said, let's jump into some Badger Bits.

Remember that proposed athletic facility that would serve as a much needed upgrade to the football amenities currently on campus? Well, that's still on track to be completed in the summer of 2014, with the groundbreaking this winter. But the details have changed, namely the location, reports Jeff Potrykus of the Journal-Sentinel. It will now be attached to the current McClain Center and the north end of Camp Randall Stadium. The original proposal had the facility directly east of the parking garage immediately north of the stadium, to be connected with the stadium via an underground passage. Instead, that space (currently a surface parking lot) will likely become an open-air plaza to be used by the athletic and engineering departments.

So the details change, but the project's main goals remain. Complete some much needed improvement on aging athletic facilities to increase the desirability of being an athlete at the University of Wisconsin. No longer will the Badgers lose recruits on the basis of how nice the facilities are, which can only improve a football program that's already making some big moves in the world of college football. More BB after the J.

Russell Wilson stands out as only player to never play a down of Big Ten football on list: this particular list is the preseason top 25 players according to the ESPN Big Ten blog. RW checks at No. 18, joining Chris Borland who was No. 25.

Badger cornerbacks and press coverage may actually end up in the same sentence this season: Could be a big year for Devin Smith and Antonio Fenelus, as Chris Ash really starts to put his stamp on this secondary. Niles Brinkley has graduated, so it's up to Marcus Cromartie to become that 3rd corner.

Russell Wilson enjoys the Memorial Union Terrace. Well duh, obviously: Mike Lucas sits down for an interview with Wilson and we learn about how his summer in Madison has gone so far. We also find out that he's already engaged- sorry ladies.

Sparty NOOOOOOOOOOO: Mark Dantonio says the best moment of the 2010 Michigan State season was beating Wisconsin. You positive, Mark? I thought it was that riveting bowl game against Alabama.

The one where you hope your UW-Madison attending daughter isn't a sugar baby: This can't be real, can it? And yet it's another thing Ohio State is supposedly better than us at.

That's all for today. We end with Badger seniors talking student athlete compensation, noting that football players eat more food than normal people: