Wisconsin Football: Badgers Creep Up in National Polls

Wisconsin football still lingering in the top ten of both national polls four games into the 2017 season

Wisconsin football inched up slightly in college football national polls.  The Badgers are currently 8th (+1) in the Associated Press (AP) Top 25 and 9th in the Coaches Poll (+2).

Thus far, Wisconsin has not given national pollsters a reason to drop them or elevate them too much in four games.

Bucky can thank USC for its slightly improved poll position for week six.

Wisconsin Badgers Football

The Trojans lost to Washington State on Friday evening.  As a result, USC tumbled nine places in the AP poll to 14th and 10 spots in the Coaches Poll to 15th.

The Washington State Cougars jumped up to five spots in each poll to 11th nationally.  In-state rival Washington is now sixth in both polls after moving up two places in the Coaches Poll.

Those two schools will settle things in the annual Apple Cup.  The winner there looks to be the favorite to make the CFP as the Pac-12 representative.

In fact, Wisconsin was a composite ranking was 10.6 before the season started.  So little has changed for the Badgers and that’s fine.

Frankly, the biggest change from preseason is Florida State’s fall and defending champion Clemson’s rise.  But the top four seems pretty set for the time being.

• #1 Alabama
• #2 Clemson
• #3 Oklahoma
• #4 Penn State

Every team in that quartet has tough games remaining especially Penn State.  The Nittany Lions still have to face Michigan (home) and The Ohio State (away) in consecutive weeks to end October.  Win those and the final reward is the Big Ten title game against likely Wisconsin.

Michigan is 7th in both national polls while The Ohio State is is 10th in the AP Poll and 9th in the Coaches Poll.

Wisconsin is 12 rankings points ahead of the Buckeyes in the AP Poll and 51 points behind Michigan.  Over in the Coaches Poll, Wisconsin is four ranking points behind Michigan and eight ranking points behind The Ohio State.

Yet again, no other Big Ten team beyond those three Big Ten East powers and Wisconsin are in either top 25 poll.