Alright, we're putting out the call to all you awesome Badger fans out there. We've been challenged by the folks over at Buckeye Empire! We're in need of you fellow Badger fans to join our editor Andy and some of the other staff members in a fantasy football league courtesy of E!SPN. 

It's for prizes and should a Badger fan win you'll get your choice of Badger gear (ahhghem... MadTownBadgers Store anyone?) We've been told the Buckeyes think they'll win we say b.s., there's no way in hell a Luckeye fan could possibly know more about Big Ten football than a Badger fan, right? So help us win this thing and earn the blogging version of bragging rights!!

Here are the details for the league:

First off you need to sign up for an ESPN account if you don't have one already (it's FREE).

Secondly, the name of the League: The Empire B1G Challenge

The Password: embracethehate

Lastly, this isn't a draft league, you pick the players you want on your team each week regardless of what others pick and the team with the best point total by the end of the season wins, it's really simple and easy to set up. Seriously, you know you've got about 3 minutes to set up a team somewhere during the week, right?

So, let's show the Buckeye fans what Wisconsin is all about! 

While poking around the Big Ten Network website late this past week I came across this gem of a headline "Minnesota adds 108-year old national title" and I just had to find out what the hell they were talking about.

I mean, seriously, how do you not know you won a national championship in any sport? Those are things you'd think you'd document and remember for all-time, right? But if any team would "forget" a national championship it would be the Gophs. 

I guess they're awesome at spelling, terrible at math over there at Eastern Dakota University?

As Badger fans we are all well aware of the most recent argument that Gopher fans seem to have in the "Battle for Paul Bunyan's Axe," you know the whole "We've got 6 national championships and you've got zero" one? Ya, I'm sure you've heard it a few times from those folks who dared cross the border and put on the maroon and gold instead of the Cardinal and White (and I'm talking students not just players here). 

They certaintly can't claim they own the series as Wisconsin has a 37-24-3 record in the Axe portion of the series. (Yes, Gopher fans I'm aware that the overall series is 59-54-8 in your favor.. how's the modern day history treating you though?)

Well, apparently they are trying to claim another national championship actually happened, some 30 years before the first one that they claim happened, happened. Yep, we're talking about the 1904 National Championship.

Wisconsin continues to haul in the talent for the 2014 class as early Saturday night Madison area native Jaden Gault announced his verbal commitment to the Badgers. The Monona Grove High School offensive lineman made his announcement via Twitter on Saturday night.

He made the announcement stating simply: "Just committed to play football for the university of Wisconsin! #WiscONsin" on his Twitter account.

Gault joins fellow in-state offensive lineman George Panos along with Sturgis, Michigan QB Chance Stewart as the verbal commitments so far in 2014 class for the Badgers.  Stewart and Panos are both 4 star recruits (according to 247sports) and are ranked 244 and 119 in the first 2014 Top247 by 247sports.

With this commitment Wisconsin has already hauled in a heck of a start to class with 247sports ranking the Badgers 1st in the Big Ten and 9th nationally at the moment. Now, I'm sure this will change as big names commit and what not, but for a program that has seen the number of scholarships available hurt their rankings in 2012 and 2013 this start indicates they are off to building themselves a class that will be in the upper echelons of the Big Ten.

I spoke to Gault this evening after the announcement and he had a few simple things to say to Badger fans out there. 

So, how many of you are pumped up for the start of the 2012 Badger football season? It is only 14 days away after all! Well, if you didn't already know we have our very own clothing store were you the fellow fan can get everything from our logo t's to iPad/iPhone covers on a regular basis at the MadTownBadgers Store.

Well, we are proud to announce that we have just released our 2012 Fall Football shirts & hoodies for your consumption!! Why not show off your favorite site to your friends while tailgating this fall, right? We've got you covered with our Slogan "Keeping It Bucky" T-Shirts and our official Badger Football T-shirts and hoodies with the theme "Run BWG".... (Ball, White, Gordon) on them! 

Remember, all shirts you buy go directly to helping us add equipment and benefit our charities of choice: The JJ Watt Foundation and Team Rubicon, so please consider supporting us with your dollars so that we can give you the fellow fan the best coverage available for FREE!!

Take a look at a few of the pics below and we'll be rolling out the full line to women and children as the weekend progresses.

So make sure you head over to the MadTownBadgers Store and help support this awesome community and some great charities as well!! We thank you in advance and as always ON WISCONSIN!!

MADISON, Wis. - They say revenge is a dish best served cold and that's exactly what the Wisconsin Women's Soccer team did as they opened up their 2012 campaign by beating visiting Notre Dame 1-0 on Friday night at the McClimon Soccer Complex in front of 1,136 fans celebrating the start to all Badgers sports for the 2012-13 year.

Those 1,136 fans on hand tonight had to wait out an anxious 83 plus minutes as the eventual game winner came at the 83:41 mark off the boot of Senior Monica Lam-Feist.

After stepping in front of a pass in the mid-field the goal came from a blast just outside the box that banked off the left post and in. The goal came completely unassisted.

With the victory tonight Wisconsin got revenge for a 2-0 season opening defeat at the hands of the then top ranked Irish in South Bend, IN last season.

The Irish came into 2012 ranked 28th after receiving votes in the 1st NSCAA poll of this season and are perennial Big East powers.

For Wisconsin the win marks just the 2nd victory over Notre Dame in program history as the all-time record now stands at 13-2-1 in favor of the Irish. The first victory over the Irish came back in 1989. It also marked the Badgers first win in a season opener in over five years, the last coming via a 3-2 win over Creighton in 2006. 

8.17.12 Practice - courtesy Nate Woelfel/MadTownBadgers

(Editors Note: These are the impressions of our Nate Woelfel who was in attendance at Friday mornings practice that was open to the media).

When media members got their first glimpse at an entire practice on Monday, the state of the quarterback battle received mixed reviews. Some claimed that there was no contest and others felt that it would still take some time to iron things out.

The top-three quarterbacks: Danny O’Brien, Curt Phillips, and Joel Stave are continuing to split reps fairly equally and all three turned in solid performances on Friday morning.  However, only Phillips and O’Brien took situational reps with the first team at the end of practice.

What a better way to start your weekend than by talking a little Big Ten football, right? Well, we ended our first full week on the B1G Countdown to Kickoff series by talking to Jay from Lake The Posts. Needless to say it was great information and a ton of fun as well. Make sure you check out all of our episodes by going to the home of MadTownBadgers radio.

Topics covered today:

• Kain Colter and his super-awesomeness
• That whole bowl game streak thing
• The status of Kyle Prater on this team
• Can there be a RB to actually take pressure off Colter
• How bad is this secondary?
• Why NU isn't Linebacker U?
• and much more

Here's the episode with Lake The Post's Jay, talking Northwestern (everyone's 2nd favorite Big Ten team, right?)

Listen to internet radio with MadTownBadgers on Blog Talk Radio

Next Monday we begin the downhill of the B1G Countdown to Kickoff series by talking Iowa Hawkeyes with Marc Morehouse of the Cedar Rapids Gazette and Hawkeye Central.com, so make sure you start your week off right at 10amCT

We're always trying to give you the most in-depth coverage that we can and we're proud to announce our partnership with The Vault in De Pere as we bring you the only LIVE pre and post game show dedicated to Badgers football by fans, for fans!

That's right, we are re-launching Wisconsin Sound Off LIVE! It'll take place during each Badger away game and along with our team of writers, we'll be bringing you exclusive guests and new features as well as give you the fellow fan a chance to SOUND OFF before and after each and every away game.

This is our 2nd year partnering with The Vault so if you are in Green Bay or the Fox Valley consider joining us for each away game as not only will we be giving you the best coverage you can find outside of Madison, but there will be plenty of fun to be had in the form of drink specials, amazing food, the best in Badger traditions, and various raffles that will help us send some money to our favorite charities of choice, the JJ Watt Foundation and Team Rubicon. If you were around last season you can attest to the fun that we all had and the community of Badger fans we began to build.

We hope to see you all out at The Vault to help us cheer on the Badgers at the best "Badger Tailgate away from Camp Randall," on our season premier, Sept. 8th against the Oregon State Beavers.

You can find Wisconsin Sound Off LIVE! by going to our internet radio home here. You can also find our full schedule of events here:

The battle for the No.2 receiver spot took an interesting turn on Wednesday night when Jordan Fredrick went down with a bruised calf.
While the injury does not appear to be too serious, the door could be open for someone else to take over as the favorite for the second spot.

Amazingly we've already reached the halfway point in our 2nd annual B1G Countdown to Kickoff. Today we were joined by not one, but two Penn State writers as Kevin McGuire of The Nittany Lions Den and Joe Juliano of the Philadelphia Inquirer joined us both live and via taped interview to break down all that is happening on the football field at Penn State.

Up tomorrow on the show is a look at the Northwestern Wildcats, it goes off LIVE at 10amCT so make sure to check us out then. 

Topics covered on Penn State:

• Where the fanbase stands w/ sanctions & Bill O'Brien
• Can there be a sense of normalcy this year
• What will the Penn State offense look like w/ losses of Justin Brown & Silas Redd
• How monster is the defense
• What does Michael Mauti mean to Penn State?
• and much, much more

So check out the show here:

Listen to internet radio with MadTownBadgers on Blog Talk Radio