Wisconsin Football: 2021 Big Ten schedule revised

Dec 30, 2020; Charlotte, NC, USA; Wisconsin Badgers hold up the winning trophy after beating Wake Forest at Bank of America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 30, 2020; Charlotte, NC, USA; Wisconsin Badgers hold up the winning trophy after beating Wake Forest at Bank of America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Wisconsin football schedule for the 2021 season has been revised. The Big Ten announced the revisions on Friday at noon. Most of the Badgers’ games will remain the same, but there has been some switching of dates and locations.

Usually, the schedules for FBS teams are set a year or more in advance. These schedules have been in flux since this past summer due to covid. First, the Big Ten wasn’t going to play until this spring, then they came out with a conference-only schedule.

Now, the Big Ten came out with yet another revised Big Ten schedule for the 2021 season. In this schedule, the Wisconsin football team will play a full slate of games, conference, and non-conference.

Here is the Badgers’ new schedule:

Notable changes

The Badgers will still open their season at home against Penn St. Normally, the Badgers would start with a cupcake game, but they have played some big games to open the season in the past, like when they played Alabama at the start of the 2015 season.

Their non-conference games remain the same. They will play Eastern Michigan in Week 2, followed by a bye before they play Notre Dame in Week 4 at Soldier Field in Chicago. They will also play Army at home in Week 7.

One big, and exciting, change is that the Minnesota game was moved from Week 6 to the final game of the season. This game will be in Minnesota. I think this was a great idea for the Big Ten to move this rivalry game to the final game of the season. Previously, Wisconsin was slated to host Iowa in the last week, but that game was moved to Week 9 on October 30th.

The game against Purdue was switched from a home game to an away game. If it would have stayed a home game, it would have been three years in a row that the Boilermakers would have come to Camp Randall.

This is a favorable schedule for the Badgers. They have seven home games, four away games, and a game at a neutral site. The four away games are at Illinois, Purdue, Rutgers, and Minnesota. Those are all very winnable games on the road. The Badgers also won’t have to face Ohio St. in 2021 and will have Northwestern at home, both of which are always positive situations.

As the 2021 season for Wisconsin football gets closer, we’ll take a deeper dive into the schedule and look at it game-by-game, but for now, at least we have a solid picture of what next season will look like.