B5Q Blogopean Union: we are shouting about Sports Illustrated rankings

Good morning! This is going to be a daily(ish) post that discusses the goings on of the rest of the Big Ten Conference, and the country as needed. Much like the European Union, the Big Ten is a loosely confederated group of entities that sometimes have the same goals (like free movement of people between countries or not winning national titles in football or basketball) and sometimes accept new members that they later regret (Estonia or Rutgers).

We hope that you will use this post to comment on things happening around the conference and also as a sort of daily open thread to discuss breaking news or argue about Spotted Cow.

• Former Badgers wide receiver Quintez Cephus and his lawyers held a press conference on Monday afternoon to ask Chancellor Becky Blank and the University of Wisconsin to “do the right thing.” Somewhere between 12-18 of Cephus’ teammates stood with him during the press conference, including Jonathan Taylor, Tyler Biadasz, Jack Coan, Chris Orr and Garrett Groshek.
• Matt has another in-depth practice report from Camp Randall for you. The biggest takeaway is that tight end Luke Benzschawel left with an injury. Get well soon, Luke!
• I think Aaron Vopal, David Pfaff and Izayah Green-May should host a show every week and ask kids what they thought about the last game and Vopal’s dating life.

• The official @BadgerFootball account tweeted out the eyes emoji with Tuesday’s date and a grainy video of old Camp Randall.

What does it all mean!?!? Probably throwback jerseys that everyone is going to hate, right? Whatever it is, I’m sure there will be a calm and rational reaction to it online.

• Chris Orr is a good football player and seems like an even better dude.

• Four Badgers were selected for international duty on the hockey rink. USA vs. Canada...it doesn’t get any bigger than that! At least in hockey. The Canadian football team sucksssss.

• Want a chance to see the next Rose Lavelle in person? The women’s soccer team has two free games this week!

Or, you could just go to Washington D.C. and see the first Rose Lavelle.

• The preseason AVCA Coaches Poll will be announced Tuesday afternoon.

The cowards wouldn’t RT our suggestion for a top-10. Smh.

• Sports Illustrated had an awful lot to say about college football, and the Badgers, on Monday. They released a whole bunch of lists in celebration of the 150th year of college football (thanks, Rutgers!) and they continued their top-25 scouting reports with no. 19...Wisconsin!

I know that it is hard to expect a national magazine to get into the minutiae of every team that isn’t Alabama, Clemson or Ohio State, but when people who don’t follow Wisconsin closely read something like this about the offensive line: “Entering this season only center Tyler Biadasz is a known quantity” it makes it seem like there are four traffic cones surrounding our center.

Tackle Cole Van Lanen has been rated as one of the best players, not just offensive linemen, in the country heading into the season.

I know budgets aren’t exactly overflowing with cash to have writers focused on each team you rank...but at least do a cursory Google search before writing.

But, on to far more serious matters. Madison, Wisconsin was named the best college town in America for the 1,000,000th time by someone.

Nestled around Lakes Mendota and Monona, Madison is about as picturesque as it gets, and the Terrace at Memorial Union on campus at the University of Wisconsin might be the most delightful spot in the Midwest—at least four months out of the year. And when it’s too cold to take advantage of the lakes, Madison offers a great food and bar scene—drink Spotted Cow while you’re within the Wisconsin state lines—plus, it’s worthwhile to freeze for a late-season football game here.

Man, I can NOT escape Spotted Cow anywhere! Dotty Dumpling’s Dowry was named the 3rd best college town restaurant in the country and hoo boy did the ol’ Slack channel have some thoughts on that. There may be a roundtable in the near future on places to eat in Madison.

On, Wisconsin was named the 5th best fight song which seems about four spots too low imo. Camp Randall was not named one of the top stadia, Bucky Badger was left off the top mascot list and Wisconsin’s demolition of Miami in last year’s Pinstripe Bowl somehow didn’t make the top bowl games of all time.

• A really cool breakdown of the Wisconsin defense from our best friends at The Daily Stampede.
• Nebraska has a pretty loaded volleyball schedule this year, including a title game rematch against Stanford.
• ESPN released their top-50 players for 2019 and Jonathan Taylor slotted in at no. 6, the highest rated member of the B1G. There were a bevy of other B1G players on the list, including: no, 9 Ohio State DE Chase Young, no. 12 Purdue WR Rondale Moore, no, 26 Michigan QB Shea Patterson, no, 30 Nebraska QB Adrian Martinez, no. 35 Ohio State RB J.K. Dobbins, no. 37 Michigan State LB Joe Bachie, no. 39 Penn State DE Yetur Gross-Matos, no. 41 Iowa DE A.J. Epenesa, no. 45 Michigan State DE Kenny Willekes and no. 49 Ohio State QB Justin Fields.
• Five questions about the quarterback position at Michigan.
• Minnesota’s offensive line is, in a word, large. Are they better than last year’s version? The Daily Gopher dives in and finds out.
• The Illinois basketball team went to Italy to play four exhibition games. They lost to the Dutch B Team while they were there. That is their second loss to the Dutch in the past four years.