News - Local

Saturday, Nov. 22, 2008

Cal Poly just misses major upset against Wisconsin

Team and fans get a thrill competing on a big stage, but ultimately, Poly can’t keep up with Wisconsin; now, all attention turns to today’s playoff selection

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MADISON, Wis. — After the Cal Poly football team’s 36-35 overtime loss at Wisconsin on Saturday, Mustangs players and coaches sulked into the interview room, feeling like losers.

In a game the Mustangs controlled most of the afternoon, missed extra points doomed an upset bid that would have exponentially increased the program’s exposure and given the city quite a plug, too.

“We’re disappointed,” Cal Poly head coach Rich Ellerson said. “We’re not surprised that this football team came in here and played well and had a chance to win. We’re disappointed it didn’t win. That’s what we wanted to happen.

“... It’s certainly not a negative for the long term, but it’s certainly negative right now.”

Still, for nearly 50 minutes Saturday, when score updates flashed across screens on national networks like ESPN, they showed the Mustangs (8-2) beating the Badgers in Camp Randall Stadium, a notion likely to shock an overwhelming majority of college football fans. Without a win, it’s just what Cal Poly supporters could have wanted out of a late-season matchup that appeared to have only theoretical bearing on the upcoming NCAA Division I-FCS playoff seeding, which will be announced today at 4 p.m. on ESPNU.

Wisconsin (7-5) plays in the higher FBS subdivision of Division I — a level dominated by humongous athletes and even bigger bank accounts.

Before Appalachian State beat highly ranked Michigan, the Badgers’ Big Ten Conference mate, on a blocked field goal last season, people scoffed at the idea of an FCS team competing on such a high level.

They still do, even though Appalachian State went on to win a third straight FCS title that season. Cal Poly, which beat FBS member San Diego State to start the season, was ranked No. 3 in the FCS going into Saturday’s game.

“A game like this is super,” said Al Moriarty, who played football for the Mustangs in the mid-1950s and is now the school’s most boisterous booster. “It’s very humbling on our part to come out here and play a Big Ten school. They’ve got everything to lose and not a thing to gain, just like Appalachian State and Michigan.”

Before the game, Moriarty and close to 30 others who rode on the team’s charter flight to Madison attended a tailgate party set up by Cal Poly alumni now living in Wisconsin. Cal Poly officials said close to 200 people attended the event, which was held in a southern satellite of the Wisconsin student union.

Had there been any sun out on a day where the wind chill brought the temperature down into the 20s, the party might have been in the shadow of Wisconsin’s 80,321-seat stadium.

Outside, Badgers fans were pulling Mustangs fans aside and asking them what Cal Poly stood for and where the school was located. San Luis Obispo didn’t ring a bell, but “halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco” seemed to suffice.

Few seemed prepared for what they were about to see. Most expected a blowout, considering the difference between FBS and FCS: About 20 scholarships per team and millions of dollars in budget.

“It’s difficult,” Cal Poly president Warren Baker said of the level of competition. “What it does is gives us a chance to find out how good we really are. But we are limited to 63 scholarships.”

There is a movement among supporters to one day see the Mustangs competing in the FBS. There are many factors involved and the possibility does not seem immediately likely.

But to supporters like Moriarty, Saturday’s game was only a partial loss. In the interest of growing the athletic department, Cal Poly won something intangible as well.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity,” Moriarty said before the game, “and it gives us the impetus and the exposure that we need.

“No matter how the game turns out, this is fantastic.”