B5Q Blogopean Union: welcome back

Good afternoon! This is going to be a weekly(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.

• As we are ever so slowly inching back towards live sports being back in our lives, there will start to be some news that maybe doesn’t require its own post but is still newsworthy. We’ll try our best to collect those stories every week/couple of days and throw them in here for y’all to check out.
• A big step was taken towards college football returning this fall.

• Starting left tackle Cole Van Lanen will probably find his name on a lot of these preseason all-American teams and award lists.

• Former Badgers and Crimson Tide and kind of Illini defensive end/linebacker Christian Bell will be playing his final season at South Alabama.

• Random Wisconsin adjacent recruiting news: 5-star OT JC Latham, who used to play at Waukesha Catholic Memorial but finished his high school career at IMG Academy, is going to Alabama.

• When former Badgers defenseman K’Andre Miller had his welcome press conference, via Zoom, with the New York Rangers in April there was one user who spammed the call with racist names and language. Miller is continuing to speak out and call for a change in hockey (a predominantly white sport for those who have never watched a game) and how the sport approaches race. Hopefully people are listening.

• Bud Elliot’s Blue Chip Ratio is back for another season. It’s basically a list of all of the teams who have a legitimate shot at winning the national title because they recruit more blue chip talent (4-star and 5-star kids) than not.

While Wisconsin’s recruiting has been vastly improved recently, the Badgers are nowhere near making this list. However, if the Badgers every were to get to 50%, with the way they develop talent, it could be a CFP contender for sure.

• The Wisconsin wrestling team will have a familiar face as one of their new coaches this year.

• Madison Cone is taking on some off the field responsibility this year.

• The Badgers don’t have an alumni team in The Basketball Tournament this year, but Ethan Happ will still be participating.

• There has been a bit of a reckoning at Iowa over the past week about how black student athletes, especially on the football team, are treated. Here is BHGP’s coverage.
• 2021 4-star ATH/QB Sam Jackson decommitted from Minnesota twice (!!) and is now on board with Purdue.
• Star Nebraska WR JD Spielman is entering the transfer portal.
• Dana Rettke was named the B1G Female Athlete of the Year and Ohio State’s Chase Young was named the Male Athlete of the Year.
• Denard Robinson is now a coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars. I’ve always been a fan of that guy.
• Examining P.J. Fleck’s culture at Minnesota.