Madison - Upset with what he believed were two blown calls in Wisconsin's 21-17 loss to Tennessee in the 2008 Outback Bowl, UW coach Bret Bielema vowed he would never schedule a game worked by an officiating crew from the Western Athletic Conference. Well, when No. 10 UW (2-0) faces host and No. 21 Fresno State (1-1) Saturday night, Bielema will see a WAC crew on the field. "The contract was written a while ago," Bielema, in his third season as UW's head coach, said today during the Big Ten Conference coaches' teleconference. "We're going to have WAC officials out there. A lot of times when you're playing an away game...you'll have neutral officials... "Fresno State comes here next year and we're scheduled to have Big Ten officials." Bielema preferred to have a Big Ten crew work the game this week and suggested to Fresno State officials that a WAC crew could work the 2009 game between the teams, set for Sept. 12 at Camp Randall Stadium. "They weren't willing to go for that," Bielema said. The irony, of course, is that the crew that drew Bielema's ire in the Outback Bowl was not from the WAC. That crew was from the Mountain West Conference. ...
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