It’s been widely expected that Russell Wilson would opt for one more season of college football and play that final year in Madison.
Unfortunately for both his current employer and the Auburn Tigers, that has come to fruition.
The Asheville Tourists, a part of the Colorado Rockies minor league system, announced late Monday morning that Wilson has left the team in order to return to college football.
While the Class A club would not say where Wilson was headed, we can confirm reports from both the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and ESPN.com report that the former North Carolina State quarterback is headed to play for Bret Bielema‘s Wisconsin Badgers. Wilson is expected to appear on the network’s College Football Live show at 3:30 ET this afternoon to make an announcement and his decision official.
The addition of Wilson, an all-ACC performer at NCSU, would appear to solidify a very sketchy QB situation for the Badgers, who are in the process of replacing starter Scott Tolzien. Wilson’s presence on a team that already possesses a stifling defense and deadly ground game will make the Badgers the overwhelming preseason favorite to win the Leaders (chuckle) division and square off against the winner of the Legends (giggle) division in the inaugural Big Ten title game.
UPDATED 12:47 p.m. ET: Wisconsin has confirmed that Wilson has committed to play for the Badgers.
“Russell will come in and compete for the starting quarterback position,” Bielema said in a statement. “This is an unusual situation, especially for a program that prides itself on developing players throughout their careers, as we do here at Wisconsin. However, this is a special situation and Russell is the type of player and person that fits very well with our team.”