The Wisconsin football season doesn’t start for another 101 days when they host the Penn St. Nittany Lions on September 4th, but it isn’t too early for oddsmakers to start releasing odds for the college football season.
WynnBET has released odds for the National Championship, conference championships, and the Heisman winner. The Wisconsin football team appears in each of these categories.
National Championship
The Badgers are a lot lower on this list of odds than I thought they would have. In fact, the more I look at this list, the less sense it makes to me. The title of the odds is NCAA Division I, FBS Post Season 21/22 – NCAA (F) Championship – Winner. So these are the odds to win the National Championship.
WynnBET has the Badgers’ odds at +4000, which is just the 32nd highest. What’s even more head-scratching, is that the Badgers are behind teams like Indiana and Michigan St. at +2500, and Arkansas, Boise St., Maryland, Oregon St., and Purdue at +3000.
You could argue that the oddsmakers aren’t excited about Wisconsin’s chances because they finished last regular season with a 3-3 record and can’t seem to get over the hump in the Big Ten Championship game when they will likely play Ohio St. But there are also teams ahead of Wisconsin that are in the same conference division as Ohio St. that are ahead of Wisconsin.
The Wisconsin football team may not be a serious contender this year, but I find it pretty hard to believe that 31 other teams are ahead of the Badgers.
Big Ten Championship
These odds make a lot more sense to me. Ohio St. is and should be, the favorites to win the Big Ten. They come in at -108 odds.
The Badgers are tied for second with +850 odds right now, tied with Michigan and Penn St. to win the Big Ten Championship Game.
The next Big Ten West teams are Iowa (+1100), Nebraska ad Northwestern (+1700), and Minnesota (+2000). Those odds alone tell us that Wisconsin is the favorite to win the Big Ten West and may only be a two-team race between the Badgers and the Hawkeyes.
Heisman Trophy
This one is more for fun. I don’t think any serious college or Wisconsin football fan actually thinks a Wisconsin Badger will win the Heisman this year. Offensive players almost always win the Heisman and the Wisconsin offense is still relatively young, at least at most skill positions.
Quarterback Graham Mertz is the Badgers with the highest odds, which makes sense. He comes in with +5000 odds, which ties him at 36th. The current favorites are Oklahoma quarterback, Spencer Rattler (+650) and Clemson quarterback DJ Uiagalelei (+700.) The highest Big Ten player is Ohio St. quarterback, CJ Stroud, who has the fifth-highest odds (+1200).