I don’t think I am alone in being both stunned and outraged
by the news that the girlfriend of Manti Te’o, who supposedly died of leukemia
hours after Te’o’s grandmother and days before a key matchup with Michigan
State, never existed. Thanks to a story from Deadspin published Tuesday, the
once-clean image of the Notre Dame Linebacker has been sent on a free fall.
But while I certainly have my beliefs about what actually
happened and the potential motives behind it, I will save that speculation for
more polished writers. Having said that, there is one thing I can say with
certainty in the wake of this bombshell: the influence of college athletics is
too big for its own good.
It is one thing to have college programs cheat the rules of
the NCAA. At its worst, rules violations such as those that occurred at Ohio
State and Miami prevent the maintenance of a level playing field. But with the
last two bombshell stories in college football, the result is the degradation
of human decency, a consequence that just isn’t worth the potential reward.
Now before I digress into another rant on how college sports
have been perverted into an outlet for ego and revenue, I have to turn the
attention back to the relationship stories like Penn State and now Te’o have to
athletics here at Wisconsin.
I cannot claim to know everything that goes on inside the
athletic department at UW. I am certain that my squeaky clean mental image of
the program doesn’t exactly match reality, in fact I don’t think there is any
major college program out there that hasn’t at least walked a thin line in
recent years.
What I can appreciate, especially after witnessing the
events last night in Bloomington, is that Wisconsin is about team and not ego.
Save Barry Alvarez and his often-inflated legend, the recent successes by
Wisconsin football and basketball have come without the benefit of
nationally-recognized figures like Te’o and Paterno.
Last night put that philosophy on display for the college
basketball nation to see. Despite Indiana sophomore Cody Zeller dominating the
box score and the ESPN highlight reel, the team effort of a UW team given
absolutely no chance to win ultimately allowed the impossible to become a
reality.
These team efforts are what college sports SHOULD be about. Too
often of late the promise of awards and money have led players, coaches,
administrators, and yes, media types to trump the individual over the team. The
stories of Te’o, of Saban, of Calipari, and of the Tebow/Meyer duo trump any
story on success certain teams have been able to have on the field despite a
lack of individual “stars”.
Wisconsin basketball is one of those teams. Though the lack
of a star player or egotisical (relatively) head coach make the Badgers a
disappointing lead for ESPN and others, they are more indicative of what
college athletics should be all about than perhaps any other team in the country.
Coaches like to talk about “next man up” but the Badgers truly embrace that
philosophy, continuing to be a factor in the Big Ten conference regardless of roster
composition.
Its time we start getting back to the team and start moving
away from the individual. The more we try to put individual coaches and players
on a pedestal in stories that “transcend sports”, the more we set ourselves up
for ultimate disappointment. Sports are what they are and that is why it is so
refreshing to watch Wisconsin focus on simply putting up more points than the
other team when the clock strikes zero.
