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24
Kickoff '93
Friday. September 10.1993
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F
Experienced Badgers
primed for Big Ten rise
Bigger and Better
Ten?
After several lean years, Wis-
consin coach Barry Alvarez is
readyforhismostproductive sea-
son yet. The Badgers return eight
on offense, seven on defense and
second team All-Big Ten punter
Sam Veit.
A quality
backfield will
be necessary to
continue in-
,freasing point
production as
Wisconsin has
done the last
two seasons.
07i
Returning its top two quarter-
backs and top four running backs
from a season ago is a step in the
right direction.
Quarterback Darrell Bevell's
1,479 yards were the ninth high-
est single season total and placed
him 20th on the career list after
just one season. Despite separat-
inghis shoulder in the sixth game
ofthe season, Bevell continued to
start the rest of the year. If needed
Jay Macias is a competent
backup. His play was pivotal in
saving last season's victory over
Purdue.
The tailback responsibilities
will be split between Brent Moss
and Terrell Fletcher. Moss, with
739 yards rushing a year ago
only needs 42 yards to cross the
1,000-yard plateau. Fletcher was
second only to Moss with 496
yards. Jason Burns (344 yards)
moves to tailback from fullback
this season behind Mark Mont-
gomery (257 yards.)
Despite graduating four wide
receivers, Bevell will have at
least two strong targets. Lee
DeRamus, who earned All-Big
Ten honorable mention with his
680 yards receiving, is back.
Through just two seasons,
DeRamus is already ninth on
the all-time career receiveing list
with 1,054 yards. Continuing at
his current pace he has a chance
to pass former Badger great, Al
Toon, for the record. Fellow jun-
ior J.C. Dawkins will take the
opposite split end position.
A virtual wall will be protect-
ing Bevell. Nearly the entire of-
fensive line returns, including
the tight end, Michael Roan.
Roan is one of three on the line,
center Cory Raymer and right
tackle Joe Panos are the others,
who garnered All-Big Ten hon-
orable mentions. Panos is also a
team captain and is being touted
as an All-American candidate.
"We have quality starters on
both lines this year," Alvarez
said. "That's the area where you
decide who wins a ballgame."
On the defense side of the
ball, the line is indeed just as
stalwart. The front three is in-
tact, including first team All-Big
Ten player Lamark Shackerford.
Flanked by Carlos Fowler and
Mike Thompson, another honor-
able mention, the lineman have
64 starts between them.
The linebacking unit lost three
out of four players but still re-
turns an All-Big Ten honorable
mention outside linebacker in
Chad Yocum. If that distinction
seems diluted because ofthe num-
ber of players who have it, it should
not. Wisconsin is among the lead-
ers in distinguished players, and
even higher in those players with
remaining eligibility.
The secondary also has a re-
turning honorably mentioned-
strong safety, Reggie Holt. Along
with Scott Nelson, the senior duo
form an experienced group. Holt
ranks 19th to Nelson's 17th on
Wisconsin all-time tackling list.
Jeff Messenger returns to fill a
boundary cornerback position.
Junior college All-American
Kenny Gales rounds out the four-
some.
Redshirt freshman John Hall
will assume the placekicking re-
sponsibilities.
In attacking this season the
Badgers will able to play a rela-
tively soft Big Ten schedule. They
also have the advantage of three
well-placed off Saturdays.
- Andy De Korte
on the Big Ten in
vited Penn State
into the conference as
its 11th member in 1989, the
move sparked a frenzied chain
reaction among other confer-
ences, each fighting over the re-
maining independent football
teams in Division I-A. However,
since that announcement, the Big
Ten has been silent in the expan-
sion wars of collegiate athletics.
Yet, as the Nittany Lions em-
bark on their maiden Big Ten
football season, making their
admittance to the conference fi-
nal, the 11-team conference faces
some logistical problems. Most
specifically, these involve devel-
oping a balanced schedule in an
league with an odd number of
participants. That might change
sometime after next summer,
when a university president im-
posed moratorium on expansion
in the Big Ten ends.
"There'has been a great deal
of speculation about expansion,"
Big Ten Assistant Commissioner
Mark Rudner said. "But we would
not expand unless we found a
school that was as good a fit as
Penn State was. We would not
expand just to make scheduling
easier."
Like many of the Big Ten
schools, Penn State is a large,
land-grant, research university
with a strong tradition in athlet-
ics. Along with its perennial foot-
ball powerhouse, the Nittany Li-
ons excel in women's basketball,
gymnastics and wrestling. Penn
State also offers more varsity
sports than any Big Ten school
except Ohio State.
Expansion has many benefits,
most notably in enlarging the
Big Ten's viewing market. With
the addition of Penn State, the
Big Ten developed an Eastern
following that was previously
untapped.
Expanding the conference
would also generate more rev-
enue for its member schools.
Rudner said that in the recent
TV contract extension between
the conference and ABC, each
school would bring in more money
than under the past contract.
However, Penn State also will
retain its membership in the
College Football Association
(CFA) until 1995. This associa-
tion works independently of the
Big Ten in terms of TV revenues,
negotiating its own agreement
with the major networks. Thus,
along with the money from the
Big Ten's contract, the schools
will also share Penn State's piece
of the CFA pie.
Despite these benefits, the
move to expand was met with
some criticism. One of the big-
gest complaints was the added
travel with eastward expansion.
However, Michigan Athletic Di-
rectorJackWeidenbach said that
has not been a concern.
"Because most of our sports
are championship sports, not
round robin, travel has not been
a major problem," Weidenbach
said. "We only play every team in
a handful of sports."
Penn State has begun to ben-
efit from its short marriage with
the league. Prior to joining the
conference, its only revenue pro-
ducing sport was football.
"Until we joined the Big Ten,
our men's basketball team was
losing money," Penn State Direc-
tor of Athletics Jim Tarman said.
"But now that we share in the
television packages, we will be
making a profit."
While the move has increased
revenue in men's basketball, the
football team is now forced to
share its bowl money and gate
receipts.
In the Big Ten, schools share
their gate receipts equally with a
minimum payout of$150,000 and
a maximum of $600,000. Tarman
said Penn State brings in $1.75
million for each home game. In-
stead of paying guarantees of
about $250,000, Penn State will
share $600,000 a game.
"While we have to share more
money for football, we also have
the guarantee that if we don't
make a bowl game, we still get
money," Tarman said.
The Big Ten is looking most
closely at the expansion in the
12-team Southeastern Confer-
ence (SEC). With the addition of
two teams-Arkansas and South
Carolina in 1990 -the SEC has
split into an Eastern and West-
ern division of six teams each.
The financial benefits for this
move are great. NCAA rules al-
low a conference to hold a one-
game championship in football if
the conference has 12 or more
teams split into two divisions.
The SEC earns approximately
$11 million from this game.
Also, if the Big Ten were to
expand to a 12th team, the con-
ference would more than likely
institute a lucrative postseason
Expansion to eleven teams brought benefits and.
problems to the Big Ten. Is the Big 12 in the future?
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Wisconsin Sports Information
Wisconsin's receiver Lee DeRamus made 42 catches for 680 yards in 1992.
Barnett expects improvement
as weii as
Theredit is right on the cover of
the media guide, just like last
year - Expect Victory. Maybe
they mean expect a victory? The
Wildcats have Minnesota and In-
diana at home on consecutive
weekends. They certainly should
be able to pull out one of those. An
impressive 12-7 third quarter lead
Saturday,
against Notre
Dame evapo-
rated under
heavy fourth D
quarter pres-
sure.
Coach Gary
Barnett be-
lieves last
season's three
victories represented some
progress forthe Wildcats. Butthey
have had three and even four wins
in the last decade.
"The wAy you judge being suc-
cessful is improvement," Barnett
said. "Improvement for me is not
four wins but six. If you're not
winning more games than losing,
you're just like everybody else
who's losing."
Northwestern's last winning
record came in 1971, 7-4.
victories Tor uats
"Expect victory" originated
with Barnett and he believes it,
even if no one else outside the
Chicago-land area does.
Senior Lee Gissendaneris also
on the cover, believe that. He
deserves the cover as much as
anyone and is Northwestern's
strongest Heisman candidate
ever.
Joining him on the offensive
side of the ball are nine other
returning starters, including
quarterback Len Williams. Un-
fortunately for the Wildcats that
offense ranked last in rushing
and total offense in the Big Ten
last season. On Northwestern's
behalf it was in a period of ad-
justment during Barnett's first
season as coach.
Williams overcame a slow
start last season to become the
third-highest rated quarterback
in the BigTen and the highest
returning. He passed for 2,110
yards, good for second in the con-
ference.
Handing off to Dennis Lundy
paid dividends for Williams. The
junior running back led the team
with 688 yards.
Although they will be over-
shadowed by Gissendaner, the
rest of the wide receivers are tal-
ented as well. Chris Gamble and
Patrick Wright are returning
starters. However, for the time
being Wright has been bumped
to backup status because of speed
demon Mike Senters.
With only Tobin Buckner
missing from last season's offen-
sive line, the returning corps
should allow Williams plenty of
time to find one of his targets.
Defensively, the news is not
quite as good - only seven re-
turning starters.
The linebackers are led by All-
Big Ten honorable mention out-
side linebacker Steve Shine.
Shine ranked second in the con-
ference in sacks with 11 for 58
yards lost.
Sophomore William Bennett
leads the secondary. He led his
team with four passes broken up
last season.
If Barnettcan find a winning
season, his fans will place him up
among Northwestern coaching
greats Ara Parseghian and Alex
Agase-the last Wildcat coaches
to post winning records.
-Andy De Korte
PENN STATE SPORTS INFORMATIO
The Big Ten adds another large stadium to its repertoire with the addition of Penn State. Beaver Stadium offically seats
93,716, though 95,000+ crowds are the norm.