Times set for 3 more games on Wisconsin’s 2017 schedule

We now know a little bit more about the Wisconsin Badgers’ 2017 schedule.

On Wednesday, Big Ten TV partners FOX and ESPN announced a slew of kickoff times for early-season contests. Of note to Wisconsin fans: the Sept. 16 game at BYU will kick off at 2:30 p.m. CT on ABC or ESPN, the Oct. 21 homecoming game vs. Maryland will kick off at 11 a.m., and the Oct. 28 game at Illinois will also kick off at 11 a.m. TV designations for the latter two games are yet to be determined.

Last week, we learned that Wisconsin’s Sept. 1 season opener vs. Utah State will kick off at 8 p.m. on ESPN. Remember, that’s a Friday night—something that’s already stirred up a moderate level of controversy.

Some recent history on the three matchups highlighted above:

• Wisconsin and BYU have met twice. Wisconsin won 27–17 in Madison in 2013 and BYU won 28–3 in Madison in 1980.
• Wisconsin and Maryland have also met twice. The Badgers won both games; 31–24 in College Park in 2015 and 52–7 in Madison in 2014.
• Wisconsin has won seven straight games against Illinois, most recently a 48–3 win in Madison last November. That streak is the longest for either team in the series, which dates to 1895.

The full list of Big Ten games that received kickoff announcements on Wednesday can be found here.

We’re under the 100-day mark until the opener, which is awesome and scary that the year is flying by so fast and yadda yadda yadda we say this stuff every year. To commemorate that, we’re beginning to look at Wisconsin’s depth chart once again. Jake started with the quarterbacks on Wednesday.

Thursday’s Badger Bits

• In case you missed it, Jake also recapped Wisconsin’s latest offers on the recruiting trail. They come at positions that so far haven’t seen much action for the class of 2018.
• We have two Camp Randall 100 memories to catch up on: Leo Butts making history as the first African-American to take the field for the Badgers and Katie Couric’s commencement speech in 2014. Butts’s milestone is certainly more remarkable—one day shy of Camp Randall’s one-year anniversary on Nov. 2, 1918, Butts lined up at right guard in a 21–0 victory over Beloit College. For context, Butts’s achievement came 29 years before Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier in 1947.

Butts’ debut came in the Badgers’ second game of the 1918 season, which included just six games and got off to a late start due to travel restrictions surrounding World War I and an outbreak of influenza across the Midwest. The victory was a bright spot in a 3-3 season under first-year coach Guy Lowman.

Born in 1898, Butts grew up as one of five children in a home on East Dayton Street in Madison. His father, Benjamin “Benny” Butts, was born a slave in Virginia circa 1850 and escaped during the Civil War to the camp of the Wisconsin 5th Regiment, a unit he followed back to the Badger State following the war. He settled in Madison and was best known as a barber with a client list that included Congressman — and soon-to-be governor and U.S. Senator — Robert M. La Follette.

• Here’s a modern-day cause for celebration: Chloe Miller just became Wisconsin softball’s first All-American.

Miller’s senior campaign saw her lead the Big Ten with a .426 batting average (the best single-season average in program history) and lead the Badgers in hits (66), runs (53), home runs (11), slugging percentage (.794), on-base percentage (.545), and doubles (18). Along the way, the Bettendorf, Iowa, native built a 14-game hitting streak from February into March (the third-longest in program history) and received All-Big Ten second-team honors. Miller also became Wisconsin’s second National Pro Fastpitch league draftee.

Miller leaves the Badgers as the program’s all-time leader in multi-RBI games (53), RBIs (181), home runs (31), and runs (145). She also leaves second all-time with 215 career hits and 57 career multi-hit games.

For more on UW’s incredible season, check out the numbers below, as well as the highlight reel put together by the Badgers’ always-excellent YouTube channel.

• Two Wisconsin women’s basketball players left the program, the Wisconsin State Journal’s Dennis Punzel reported Wednesday.

Kelsick, a 5-foot-7 redshirt junior who transferred to UW from Boston College, played in 17 games last season after becoming eligible in the second semester. She played an average of 20 minutes, producing 2.8 points and 2.8 assists per game.

The 5-8 Gregory played in 25 games as a freshman, averaging 3.2 points in 9.2 minutes per game. She scored 15 points in a victory over Butler, hitting four 3-pointers.

• More updates from UW teams:

• This happened Tuesday night, but is still pretty cool: new Pittsburgh Steeler T.J. Watt threw out the first pitch at Wednesday’s Pirates game with fellow Steelers rookie James Conner behind the plate.

• Catching up on more Tuesday news, Badgers men’s hockey picked up a new commit in University School of Milwaukee defenseman Casey Roepke.

Roepke could join the Badgers as early as 2020, according to the Wisconsin State Journal’s Todd D. Milewski. Click the link for more info on Roepke.