Wisconsin Sports Weekend returned this weekend live at the Wisconsin State Fair with Greg Matzek and Alex Strouf.

During the first hour, Greg was joined by Jason Wilde of ESPN Wisconsin to talk about the Green Bay Packers first preseason game and Jeff Levering of the Brewers Radio Network to talk about the Milwaukee Brewers.

The Second hour of the show was focused on the State of the State Teams as Greg and Alex talked more Packers, Brewers, Bucks, and Badgers football. Alex and Greg talked where the Packers may finish in the NFC North, how far the Milwaukee Brewers may go, the Bucks off season moves, and what to expect from the Badgers football team this fall.

The Wisconsin Badgers put the finishing touches to their 2024 class on Friday, adding Italian center Riccardo Greppe to their freshmen group, joining four-star guard Daniel Freitag and three-star Jack Robison.

Greppe is the latest international recruit to commit to Wisconsin, following 2025 guard Hayden Jones, who is a New Zealand native.

Before that, Serbian center Andrija Vukovic was initially expected to join the Badgers, but issues arose, and that no longer seems to be the case this year.

This offseason, Wisconsin made an effort to bolster their international recruiting, keeping Kirk Penney, who was helpful in the Jones commitment, and adding assistant coach Lance Randall, who has connections in the area as well.

Now, with several recruits beginning to pick Wisconsin, can the Badgers maintain their efforts on the international end and perhaps even improve as a team in that category?

While an international hub was more wishful thinking, the relationships built by the coaching staff should only further the connection the school has to the overseas side.

From here on, it’s time to capitalize on them and find good fits, especially with the ever-changing landscape of college basketball, with teams focusing more on the transfer portal rather than putting a strenous amount of time into the high school side of recruiting.

NEW YORK – In a case that could have broad national implications, a Wisconsin Catholic Charities branch has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a state Supreme Court decision that its activities aren’t primarily religious, therefore denying it an exemption from paying into the state’s unemployment compensation program.

Back in March, the Wisconsin Supreme Court affirmed a lower court decision from a year earlier that the activities of Catholic Charities in the Diocese of Superior aren’t primarily religious. The ruling denied the organization a religious exemption from paying into the state’s unemployment compensation program, and prevented it from joining the church’s own unemployment compensation program.

Catholic Charities said after the ruling that it would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, and on August 9 the organization presented its first arguments to the Supreme Court. If the Supreme Court rules it could have a significant impact on what activities qualify an organization for a religious exemption.

The work of Catholic Charities in the Diocese of Superior mirrors that of other Catholic Charities branches nationwide. The organization, according to its website, helps people in the area with education in life skills, vocations and employment, housing, infant development, in-home nursing services, and independent living assistance.

Bishop James Powers of Superior argues that the organization carries out the diocese’s essential ministry.

“Catholic Charities Bureau carries out our Diocese’s essential ministry of caring for the most vulnerable members of our society,” Powers said in a statement. “We pray the Court will recognize that this work of improving the human condition is rooted in Christ’s call to care for those in need.”

Under Wisconsin law, nonprofits that are operated for a religious purpose are generally exempt from paying into the state’s unemployment compensation program. In the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s 4-3 ruling in the case back in 2023, the majority ruled that the organization’s work to help those in need may stem from Catholic teaching, but in fact it is secular work.

“In other words, they offer services that would be the same regardless of the motivation of the provider, a strong indication that the sub-entities do not ‘operate primarily for religious purposes,’” Justice Ann Walsh Bradley wrote for the majority.

Eric Rassbach, vice president and senior counsel at the Becket, which represents Catholics Charities in the case, argued that it’s clear that for Catholic charities, serving the poor is a matter of faith.

“It shouldn’t take a theologian to understand that serving the poor is a religious duty for Catholics,” Rassbach said in a statement. “But the Wisconsin Supreme Court embraced the absurd conclusion that Catholic Charities has no religious purpose. We’re asking the Supreme Court to step in and fix that mistake.”

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