Best of Big Ten volleyball: Wisconsin's Sarah Franklin leads stacked conference

CHICAGO — If there is one conference stacked with star power in Women's College Volleyball, it's the Big Ten.

Already the best volleyball conference in the space, the Big Ten grew even deeper with the addition of Washington, UCLA, Oregon and USC.

With such a deep field, you might think it would be tough to break down the best players in the conference. There were 18 student-athletes receiving preseason recognition, including three unanimous selections in Nebraska’s Lexi Rodriguez and Merritt Beason, and Penn State’s Jess Mruzik.

Let's take a look at the preseason all-conference team:

With the sport growing in popularity, FOX Sports asked Big Ten Digital Host Emily Ehman if there was a player who had the ability to take viewership to the next level, similar to what Caitlin Clark did with women's college basketball.

Ehman immediately answered with reigning Big Ten Player of the Year, Wisconsin's Sarah Franklin.

"As a player, she is an incredible outside and can really do everything really well," Ehman said in an interview at Big Ten Media Days in Chicago. "She's also just a light and so much fun to be around. She lights up a room similar to Caitlin Clark in that she's always willing to do all the media stuff. She'll stay for however long you need to tell her story, which is also pretty inspiring."

Inspiring might even be an understatement.

Last season, the award winner had surgery due to blood clots associated with Quadrilateral Space Syndrome.

"Before the season started, Franklin was basically told she probably could never play volleyball again because they found blood clots in her legs," Ehman explained. "The team was supposed to head to Turkey two days later for an international trip, but luckily, they found it right beforehand because they said if she had gotten on the plane, she could have potentially died from the blood clots.

"So she didn't play all summer, had major surgery, recovered from it, somehow made it back to the first game in August and played every single match, and had the best year of her career, winning National Player of the Year, and bringing the Badgers all the way to the Final Four."

As Ehman stated, Franklin bounced back in dominating fashion, going on to be a unanimous All-Big Ten first-team selection and also American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) National Player of the year.

Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield sees Franklin's star continuing to rise.

"You see how humble she has been and how driven she is to continue to get better," Sheffield said. "She doesn’t feel like she’s arrived at the top of the mountain. That’s when you're able to coach athletes that do bigger and better things, and they want to continue to push the envelope and climb a new mountain."

Can Franklin take her game and the Badgers to the next level this upcoming season with more and more eyeballs on her and the squad?

"She's great with media, fun to watch, is huge out there, can hit insane angles on the court," Ehman said. "She hits cut shots that go like 5 feet along the net. She's just a rock star. So, she's definitely one of those players capable of elevating the game.

"So yes, I would say our Caitlin Clark would be Sarah Franklin in the Big Ten, at least."

Franklin was humbled by the praise and is excited about the growth of the sport. She spoke to FOX Sports about the impact she, her teammates and women's volleyball are having on the next generation.

"It means so much and is such an honor to have people like us who are able to be role models for the younger generation," Franklin said. "When we were growing up, volleyball was not as big, but now you can see it on TV, and so to see that growth until now, is so awesome.

"I just love it when little girls come up to us and are like, ‘I wanna be you one day.’ That makes my day every time."

Nebraska is another team always loaded with big names, and Ehman pointed out not to sleep on the Cornhuskers' best player, Lexi Rodriguez.

"Someone that doesn't get talked about enough, and who I think might be just the best overall player is Lexi Rodriguez, a libero at Nebraska," Ehman said. "Because she's a libero, she doesn't get that much attention, but, hands down, she is one of the best college liberos I've ever seen. 

"She's definitely a player that I can imagine will be playing in the Olympics potentially in 2028, if not after that. But she's another one that's just fun."

You can watch Franklin, Rodriguez and all the amazing stars play this upcoming season.

Be sure to tune into the big State Farm Women’s College Volleyball Showcase on FOX and FS1 Labor Day weekend.

The showcase will feature Texas, Wisconsin, Stanford and Minnesota and the games will take place Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.

• Sun, 9/1 at 12:30pm ET on FOX – #1 Texas vs. #3 Wisconsin
• Sun, 9/1 at 3:00pm ET on FS1 – #5 Stanford vs. #18 Minnesota
• Mon, 9/2 at 5:00pm ET on FOX – #5 Stanford vs. #3 Wisconsin
• Mon, 9/2 at 7:30pm ET on FS1 – #1 Texas vs. #18 Minnesota

Let the games begin!