Saturday marks a dark day on the Wisconsin sports calendar as the football Badgers welcome the Cal Poly Mustangs, a Division I-AA team, to Camp Randall. To suggest that this game was scheduled as anything other than an opportunity to pad the win total against a lower-tier cupcake is insulting to fans' intelligence. That said, Cal Poly is 8-1 and ranked fourth in the country in its division, so Wisconsin could be in the unenviable position of having to hold off a team most Badger fans didn't know existed a few months ago.
Fortunately, the Wisconsin wrestling squad is around to protect UW's honor. The Badger grapplers welcome perennial power Iowa State, currently ranked number two in the nation, to the Kohl Center (7 p.m. Friday) for an early season test. The wrestling team typically calls the smaller (and less comfortable) Field House home, so the Badgers are hoping for a crowd suitable to the venue.
The Iowa State Cyclones include five wrestlers ranked in the top five nationally in their respective weight classes, including Jake Varner, who is number one at 197 pounds. He'll square off against Wisconsin's Dallas Herbst, no slouch at number five.
Other anticipated match-ups are at the heavyweight class, where Wisconsin's Kyle Massey (4) goes against Iowa State's David Zabriskie (2), and at 141 pounds, with Badger Zach Tanelli (8) seeking an upset over Nick Gallick (2).