ESCALATE THE POSITIONAL ARMS RACE.

The University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee provides college for more Wisconsin residents than Madison does.  It has long been the Cold Spring Shops position that UWM continue to raise its academic posture, rather than reposition itself in the sports world.

Nothing, though, has the staying power of a bad idea.

A 30,000-enrollment school must be called the University of Milwaukee for proper athletic branding. It certainly doesn't hurt in places such as Memphis, Cincinnati, Louisville, Houston and Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh has a long academic tradition, it's across the street from Carnegie-Mellon, which also has a long academic tradition, and Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning inspired the Stalinist pile that houses Moscow State University.  If that's part of the branding, fine.  There are solid academic programs at the other institutions, although these names usually come up in late February or early March as "good basketball schools," not necessarily a compliment.

It's not enough, though, to raise the basketball profile.

Finally - and this is where the new [athletic director] cannot be afraid of butting heads with small-thinkers in this town - UWM should restore football.

Adjacent Shorewood High School is almost ready-made for a small, start-up non-scholarship program. Have a fundraiser for bleachers that would seat about 5,000. Better yet, find a stadium that is about to be razed and buy its seats on the cheap.

Hire UW-Whitewater coach Lance Leipold, who has built the best Division III program in the country. He does it without scholarships and with players from suburban Milwaukee, Madison and Northern Illinois. You're telling me he couldn't make it work at a place that deserves to be called the University of Milwaukee?

Thus does the quest to become the next Northern Illinois which aspires to be the next Boise State, never mind the expense, begin.

Those secondhand seats?  Look for the latest high school to upgrade its athletic plant.