In the next three seasons, the Wisconsin Badgers will play two SEC teams. LSU in 2014 and 2016 and Alabama sandwiched in between in 2015. All three games will be played at neutral locations. Apparently athletic director Barry Alvarez wanted these games to be played at more than just “neutral” sites.
According to the Wisconsin State Journal, Alvarez wanted to set up a home-and-home series with the Tigers in 2014 and 2016. LSU unfortunately had zero interest in coming up to Madison to face the Badgers. As to why, well Alvarez never really got a clear-cut answer.
“They wouldn’t tell you why,” Alvarez said. “They just weren’t interested.”
Fair enough. So instead of the Badgers playing at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, LA this year and the Tigers playing Camp Randall in 2016, the two will face off at “neutral” sites. And I use that term very loosely. The two kickoff this season in Houston, TX at NRG Stadium, basically a home game for LSU. In two years, they will face at Lambeau Field, virtually a home game for the Badgers. So even though we didn’t get a true home-and-home series, in a way we kind of did.
Which brings me the game against Alabama in 2015. Alvarez lobbied hard to have a home-and-home with Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide, but to no avail. Just like their fellow SEC counterpart, Alabama had no interest whatsoever playing at Camp Randall Stadium. That’s a shame too because I would love nothing more than to see Saban’s Tide on the sidelines of Camp Randall Stadium. Equally so I would love to see the Badgers on the sidelines of an SEC stadium.
But that may not be too far down the road. Alvarez did note that he is the beginning stages of talking to an SEC school of a home-and-home series. “I have one that we’re talking to for a home-and-home, but we’re just in the infant stages of it.”
And no, it’s not Arkansas. Alvarez shot down quickly the notion of Wisconsin taking on their former head coach Bret Bielema.
Hopefully in the not-so-distant future we will see the Badgers be part of a true home-and-home series with an SEC opponent. Who knows, maybe even a prominent Pac-12 opponent may be on the horizon as well. It’s time for more of these high-profiled teams to experience Camp Randall Stadium and the greatest college football tradition, “Jump Around.”