The most glaring stat from Wisconsin's loss to Auburn in Nashville, Tenn., on New Year's Eve was not the amount of sacks and pressures given up by the lax offensive line. It wasn't the amount of yards the Tigers gained on the ground over the just-as-porous Badgers' D-line. In fact, the most glaring stat had no factor whatsoever in the game itself. It read this way:
81-Ernest Mason
True freshman wide receiver Ernest Mason suited up for the game, less than four weeks after, according to a police report, a) beating his girlfriend in her dorm, b) blocking access between her and her Housefellow and c) threatening to hurt her further should she call the cops. Now I have nothing personally against Mason, and these matters are more for the courts (the court hearing is Jan. 29) than in a student newspaper column. But Mason's ability to travel and suit up highlights the impotency of Head Coach/soon-to-be Athletic Director Barry Alvarez's decree of suspending players until a board hearing. In Mason's case, that hearing took place a couple of days after the arrest, where they cleared him immediately, thus enforcing the extremely harsh penalty of making Mason take the afternoon off.
