BadgerExtra countdown — No. 9 (2024)

Editor's note: BadgerExtra will count down the 10 biggest Badgers sports stories from the University of Wisconsin's academic year that ended in May. Stories will appear Tuesdays and Thursdays on BadgerExtra. This is No. 9.

The University of Wisconsin volleyball team was less than a year removed from the program's first NCAA national championship when coach Kelly Sheffield's squad faced one of the toughest tests in program history.

TheUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison police in October 2022 opened an investigation into the circulation of "private photos and video" of Badgers volleyball players, including from inside the team’s locker room.

With images thatoriginated on the phone of a team member being shared online, UW-Madison police began investigating "multiple crimes," according to a university statement. The volleyball players involved were not accused of wrongdoing and didn't face sanctions by the team.The investigation remains open.

“We are aware that private photos and video of UW volleyball student-athletes that were never intended to be shared publicly are being circulated digitally,” UW’s October statement said.

“The unauthorized sharing is a significant and wrongful invasion of the student-athletes’ privacy, including potential violations of university policies and criminal statutes. When the student-athletes became aware of the circulating photos, they contacted the UW-Madison Police Department."

Why it was important

Under state law, anyone whoposts online locker room images of the playerswithout the consent of the people in them could be charged with a felony, and the person who took the images could face up to nine months in jail if the images were taken without consent.

Aprovision in state law specific to locker roomsmakes it a felony punishable by up to 3½ years of combined prison and extended supervision to exhibit, distribute, transmit or broadcast images of nude or partially nude persons in a locker room without consent. That increases to six years if people in the images are younger than 18.

Taking nude or partially nude photos in locker rooms without consent is a misdemeanor punishable by up to nine months in jail or a 3½-year felony if the subjects are minors, according to the law.

When news of the leaked video broke, the Badgers were 13-3 and tied for second in the Big Ten with a 7-1 mark in league play after winning six straight matches against conference foes.

Sheffield's team stayed focused on the task at hand and closed the regular season with another 12 consecutive victories to finish the season 25-3 overall and 19-1 in the Big Ten, matchingthe best in school history, also achieved in 1997, 2001 and 2014.

Despite earning a coveted top four seed and opening the NCAA Tournament at the UW Field House, the Badgers fell short of repeating as national champions when their season ended in heartbreak with a five-set loss to No. 2 seed Pittsburgh in front of a raucous sellout crowd in the regional championship match in Madison.

What they were saying

Beyond the university's original statement that read in part "Ourtop priority is supporting our student-athletes and we are providing them with the appropriate services and resources," Sheffield and the university have remained quiet about the ongoing investigation into the leak.

Media members were told two days after news of the leak broke,following a home win over Michigan State, that any questions regarding the leak wouldn’t be answered and that a UW athletic communications official would step in and refer back to the school’s statement. A similar warning was issued three days later before Sheffield’s weekly news conference.

In the middle of the Badgers' NCAA Tournament run in December, BadgerExtra columnist Jim Polzin shared why he thought the current players were putting together "a more impressive season than the ones whowon the program’s first national championship" with astar-studded cast of super seniors in 2021.

"It was mid-October, smack dab in the middle of the season, when all hell broke loose for Kelly Sheffield’s team," Polzin wrote in December. "Private photos and videos, some of which contained nudity, circulated online and led toUW issuing a statement condemning the actas 'a significant and wrongful invasion of the student-athletes’ privacy' while acknowledging that a police investigation was underway.

"That 800-pound elephant could have crushed some teams. Not this one: UW is 14-0 since that story broke, part of a20-match winning streakit will carry into its third meeting with the Nittany Lions this season."

UW defeated Penn State in five sets before its season came to an end with the loss to Pittsburgh in a thrilling 3-hour, 7-minute match.

BadgerExtra's original coverage

For more information on the UW volleyball locker room video leak and the team's response to adversity, explore BadgerExtra's original coverage of the ongoing story.

BadgerExtra Countdown

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