Why Wisconsin volleyball’s Kelly Sheffield chose now to blast NCAA

The tirade lasted almost 5 minutes, and Kelly Sheffield had done everything but curse by the end of it. It’s fair to say the University of Wisconsin volleyball coach has used plenty of colorful language away from the cameras over the past six weeks.

Publicly? Not so much. In fact, Sheffield’s tongue must be sore from all the biting he’s done to it since the NCAA’s final ruling on Badgers libero Shanel Bramschreiber came down in late August. The organization came to the conclusion that Bramschreiber, a transfer from Baylor, had to sit out the first half of the regular season for signing with an agent in the offseason.

Sheffield issued a carefully worded statement at the time, saying Bramschreiber was being “penalized unfairly.” He wasn’t nearly as diplomatic during his weekly news conference Monday in the basement of the McClain Center, where Sheffield vented just days before what could be Bramschreiber’s UW debut.

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Bramschreiber’s ban ends this week as the No. 5 Badgers prepare for matches at Iowa on Friday and at home against No. 24 Michigan on Sunday. We’ll have more from her perspective later this week, but Sheffield used this opportunity to sound off on the fact she had to wait this long.

It didn’t take much of a spark to light Sheffield’s fire. After he made an opening statement that was nothing out of the ordinary and answered a question on Anna Smrek, the smoke appeared when Sheffield was asked how he envisioned Bramschreiber fitting in and how she’s handled the delayed start to her UW career.

Sheffield referred to the NCAA’s decision to make Bramschreiber sit out this long as “horrendous” and “ludicrous” and he only was getting started.

“It is almost criminal,” he said. “I don’t know what else to say. It is horrible, let’s go with that.”

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Sheffield came in with “guns a blazing,” he admitted about two hours later inside his office at Kellner Hall. He spent another 20 minutes providing context on the Bramschreiber saga, and I found myself nodding my head in agreement during most of that follow-up interview.

Some background for those who are new to this story: Bramschreiber thought her college career was finished last winter after starting 87 consecutive matches over her final three…