How do you explain the shrinkage, the dropoff, the decline in numbers? Blame the economy. That was the knee-jerk reaction when the first session of the University of Wisconsin football summer camp drew far fewer participants than anticipated, far fewer than the high school camp (grades 9-12) had attracted the year before. But upon further review, UW coach Bret Bielema believes the earlier dates (June 15-17) affected the turnout. "That's because the numbers were up for our second camp," he said.

While the second session (June 22-24) of the high school camp reached expectations, the youth camp (grades 4-8) far exceeded projections. "We had close to 200 youth campers compared to less than a hundred last year," Bielema said excitedly. "More than anything else, it's a goodwill event because of the age of the campers. But from a program standpoint, it was huge from my perspective because more young kids were feeling the love of the Badgers."

Bielema added that from other standpoints -- evaluation and recruiting -- summer high school camps are still generally measured by the number of scholarships that are offered to prospects and the number of verbal commitments that are received. That is the universal standard in college football today. Except there's still a larger number to compute. "That's the number of kids who are attending camp and aren't getting evaluated or recruited," Bielema noted. "They're just here to experience a football camp."

That has its benefits, too.

Public relations benefits.

Madison Edgewood High School football coach Al Minnaert has been working Badger camps since 1986. The early years were lean on success and light on commitment. Minnaert has since witnessed the growth in popularity, or what he calls "the transformation of Wisconsin football at the grass-roots level through the Barry Alvarez years" and carryover appeal through the transition from Alvarez to Bielema.

Nothing spikes participation like winning football. "Every summer," Minnaert reflected, "you see some really great athletes who are here trying to showcase themselves, and then you have the heart and soul of summer camps. You have Wisconsin high school kids just trying to get better. That's the bottom line with a camp like this one: It makes Wisconsin football better."

On all levels.

Intent on making the experience and the product better, Bielema supported the first-time inclusion of a one-day Specialists Camp on the UW campus. The organizers were Jamie and Andy Kohl, a couple of cheeseheads from Waukesha, who oversee their own kicking, punting and snapping camps. "We thought we'd get maybe 20 kids for the session and we ended up with well over 40," Bielema said. "The only issue is all these kickers came here with the idea of earning a scholarship. You set yourself up for that."

Bielema will have time to ponder any potential ramifications on the deck of a cruise ship. He's currently on an Alaskan cruise with his parents, Arnie and Marilyn, who are celebrating their 48th wedding anniversary. Bielema was planning to take plenty of reading material on the ship, including some preseason college football magazines. "I want to see what they're saying about us," he said.

Here's what he'll learn.

The Sporting News has merged with Street & Smiths, a longtime newsstand staple. The hybrid publication has the Badgers finishing third in the Big Ten behind Ohio State and Illinois. On page 58, Bielema will read that his "push to bring Wisconsin its first Big Ten championship since 1999 will likely be thwarted by quarterback trouble." On the facing page, he will read that quarterback Allan Evridge is the "Next Big Thing" and "his time has arrived as a senior."