An Arizona Republic report insists San Jose State backed out of a 2010 game at Arizona State because the Spartans "will play the Badgers instead of ASU for up to twice the $450,000 guarantee it had from ASU."
Still, Bret Bielema told The Capital Times' Jim Polzin today that no such deal has been reached. "We’re in talks with about five different schools," Bielema said. "Some of them are long-ranging, some of them are as early as 2010. But there’s a lot of different scenarios that haven’t panned out yet."
So why is Jeff Metcalfe, the Arizona Republic's ASU beat writer, so upset about the situation? In a Sunday night blog post, Metcalfe wrote:
"If I'm Lisa Love (ASU's athletic director), ASU no longer knows the way to San Jose or vice versa. ASU would no longer schedule San Jose State in any sport, a message that hopefully ASU's (President) Michael Crow would reinforce at the presidential level.
Same goes for New Mexico State, which dropped a football game at ASU in 2006, and anyone else short-sighted to jump at the quick financial gain offered by schools in other parts of the country."
First off, it's San Jose State. Who cares? The two schools have played each other 30 times, but it's not like the Sun Devils just lost a huge rivalry series or a home game against a Top 10 program. Money aside, if you're San Jose State would you rather face Arizona State or a program like Wisconsin? Add in an extra $450,000 and it's a no brainer.
But the other question here is the validity of the report. The wording in Metcalfe's original report is a little weird. He writes:
"Reports from Wisconsin are that San Jose State will play the Badgers instead of ASU for up to twice the $450,000 guarantee it had from ASU."
What reports? The Wisconsin media hadn't reported anything about this before the Arizona Repubic story came out, so where is this coming from? My guess is one of Metcalfe's sources at ASU said the UW-San Jose State game was a done deal. That's not exactly a "report from Wisconsin," but it's the only thing I can think of that makes sense.
So why did Bielema deny that the game was a done deal? Probably because it's close to being done, but not quite there. My guess is that San Jose State will play at Camp Randall in 2010, but if it doesn't happen I doubt Barry Alvarez will put a ban on scheduling games with the Spartans in any sport.
Wisconsin's 2010 Schedule
Sept 4 - at UNLV
Sept. 11 - TBA
Sept. 18 - Arizona State
Sept. 25 - TBA
Oct. 2 - at Michigan State
Oct. 9 - Minnesota
Oct. 16 - Ohio State
Oct. 23 - at Iowa
Oct. 30 - TBA
Nov. 6 - at Purdue
Nov. 13 - Indiana
Nov. 20 - at Michigan
Nov. 27 - Northwestern