Happy Friday, ya'll. I don't know about you, but I could really go for some football right now- under two months to go.
According to Andy Baggot of Madison.com, Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez signed a contract extension through 2016, which will pay him $1 million a year. Alvarez's contract is still subject to approval by the UW Board of Regents, but I can't see them rejecting the new deal. The Board of Regents will also pass judgment on new contracts for UW men's basketball coach Bo Ryan and women's hockey coach Mark Johnson.
A seven-figure paycheck would put Alvarez in very selective company: only the soon-to-be unemployed Ohio State's Gene Smith and Florida's Jeremy Foley earn $1 million or more per year. I don't know about you, but when I go in and ask for a raise my boss usually does a performance review. Following that line of thought, do you feel Alvarez has guided the UW athletic department well enough to receive a yearly salary of $1 million? Vote in the poll!
Speaking of Ohio State, they will officially respond to the NCAA's allegations on Friday, according to Brian Bennett of ESPN.com. OSU will probably lay out its self-sanctions in the response, so we may know soon enough if the Badgers will have to worry about the Buckeyes going to the Big Ten championship game.
Brian Bennett has a list of the Big Ten's players in a "NFL Top 100" list. Wisconsin has one representative: former left tackle Joe Thomas.
Athlon has named the Badgers the preseason favorites to win the Leaders division. (Yes, we still have to call it that.)
Check out the Sporting News' top recruits: the Badges already have one commit from the list, and several more are still considering Wisconsin.
And yeah, I know it's not actually Saturday yet, but I'm still in that weekend frame of mind. Have a good one.