Madison: Nebraska Fans’ New Boulder

Hello Corn Nation,

This is Warrior Brad & Admiral Ackbar, S.J. from the SB Nation blog Anonymous Eagle where we write about Marquette basketball.  You may ask why we are writing about Nebraska football and "educating" Corn Nation’s fine readers on Wisconsin football.  Isn’t Marquette in Michigan?  Does Marquette even have a football team?  Those answers are "No" (Marquette University is in Milwaukee) and "No" (Undefeated since 1960!).  We both grew up in Nebraska and have been stuck in enemy territory for 17 years and 12 years respectively.

Over at AE, we host Badgers Hate Week , a yearly ritual reminding the rodents in Madison that college sports didn’t start in 1994.  Since Marquette is clearly Wisconsin’s Creighton, let’s continue with the parallels and tread on some familiar ground to get you guys up to speed on the Wisconsin Badgers.  To do this, cast your Husker eyes west to the fine city of Boulder and let’s count the similarities.

After the jump.....

An Also-Ran in a Two-Trick Pony Conference

While Oklahoma and Nebraska were beating up on Colorado and the 5 dwarves, Wisconsin was getting clobbered on an annual basis by the Big Ten’s Big Two – Michigan and Ohio (I’m going Brady Hoke and dropping the State).  UW lost 23 of 24 games to Michigan from 1965 through 1990 and went 6-30-1 against tOSU from 1960 to 1996.  If it wasn’t for Earle Bruce, Bucky may have gone three entire decades without beating the Buckeyes.  UW football was so bad that the marching band came up with their famous 5th Quarter routine to keep the people in their seats until the regular beatings were finished.

All That Losing Leads to Sore Winning

All Husker fans are familiar with the horror stories of games in Boulder.  The Buff student section was even kicked out of the 2005 game in Boulder.  Well, expect much of the same in Madison.  Good luck wearing an opposing team’s colors.  Lest you think this venom is only directed at 100 year old conference rivals, Warrior Brad witnessed the same chant outside Camp Randall directed at Virginia fans!  Virginia!  (The joke was actually on Virginia fans, that game was Al Groh’s UVa debut).  The UW student section is also famous for this family friendly chant and arriving notoriously late to games.

It’s Not Necessarily the Natives
Like Colorado, the common folk of Wisconsin are a pretty good lot.  Like the Californians making Boulder unbearable, keep an eye out for the East Coast presence in Madison.  They are called Coasties and they have invaded UW from New Jersey.  Fair warning though, you may want to steer clear of uttering that term in Mad-town.  Most of the locals will remind you of Nebraska natives, but be on the lookout for the well-dressed crowd from the Garden State.

"N Stands for Nowledge"

Remember all those Buff fans fawning over CU’s academic rankings and 4 to 3 Nobel Prize edge over Nebraska?  Expect more of the same in Madison.  Wisconsin is a fairly high ranking public institution, coming in at 45 in latest U.S. News & World Report rankings.  In the event of a Husker win, Badgers will certain play the irrelevant education card.  We’re Number 45!  We’re Number 45!

Top 29 All-Time Ranking

Colorado and Wisconsin also share the dubious distinction of placing on this list of top 29 NCAA violators.  While Wisconsin can’t hold a candle to Colorado’s rampant drug, alcohol and sex scandals, they do have a hilarious shoe discount issue (don’t the players get enough free kicks from the school?) and some shady dealings from their current saintly basketball coach.  In non-NCAA news, Badgers have had some sticky fingers with electronics -here, here and here.

A couple additional quick hits:

Badger fans and hack beat reporters will tell you they own the rights to 'Jump Around' and the song is not allowed to played in any athletic arena outside of Madison. Ever.

A Wisconsin band in 1989 wrote a song called "I'd Hate To Wake Up Sober In Nebraska"

As for relevancy in the state, meaningless Packers game > Badgers-UNLV.

Their "fight song" is a Budweiser jingle. It's not quite "The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You," but it's not far off.

Last but not least, one for the Badger fans: Listen to the man speaking at the :31 second mark.

There you have it folks, Madison will probably remind you quite a bit of Boulder, sans Flatirons.  Enjoy the game in Camp Randall on Saturday and GBR.