Badger of Honor
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Wisconsin Football: Matchup history against Penn State

By Christian Borman

Nov 10, 2018; University Park, PA, USA; Penn State Nittany Lions running back Miles Sanders (24) leaps over Wisconsin Badgers safety D'Cota Dixon (14) during the fourth quarter at Beaver Stadium. Penn State defeated Wisconsin 22-10. Mandatory Credit: Matthew O'Haren-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 10, 2018; University Park, PA, USA; Penn State Nittany Lions running back Miles Sanders (24) leaps over Wisconsin Badgers safety D'Cota Dixon (14) during the fourth quarter at Beaver Stadium. Penn State defeated Wisconsin 22-10. Mandatory Credit: Matthew O'Haren-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Penn State and Wisconsin football teams are both in the Big Ten, but they are meeting this Saturday for just the 20th time.

Penn State wasn’t actually a member of the Big Ten until the 1990 season. So the Penn State and Wisconsin football teams played just twice before then, in 1953 and 1970, both resulting in Wisconsin victories.

Head to Head Results

Wisconsin actually won the first three meetings between the two teams. Meanwhile, the Nittany Lions have won the past four meetings, including the 2016 Big Ten Championship where Penn State came back and beat the Badgers late, 38-31.

You’d think that with the success of the Penn State football program has enjoyed over the years, they would have dominated the all-time series with Wisconsin. The series is actually very close. The Nittany Lions lead the Badgers 10 wins to 9 all-time.

These two teams have actually performed very similarly in this matchup. Both have gone on winning/losing streaks of 3+ games and the largest margin of victories are very similar. In 2008, the Nittany Lions defeated the Badgers 48-7. Just three years later, the Badgers beat the Nittany Lions 45-7.

With a win on Saturday, the Badgers will even the series at 10 wins apiece and snap the current four-game losing streak.

Program Comparison

Penn State as a whole, has enjoyed a lot more success than Wisconsin has over the years. The Nittany Lions have an all-time win percentage of 68.8%, ranked 9th of all football programs. Wisconsin, on the other hand, is at just 58.5%, 33rd all-time. The Badgers’ success in the last two decades have really done a lot to bring that percentage up.

Penn State also holds advantages over the Wisconsin football team in national championships (2), bowl games (50), total wins (902), consensus All-Americans (43), NFL draft picks (367), and weeks at AP no. 1 (21).

To compare, Wisconsin has no national championships, 32 bowl game appearances, 719 wins all-time, 32 consensus All-Americans, 289 NFL draft picks, and just one week as the AP no. 1 team.

Wisconsin holds the advantage over Penn State in Heisman Trophy winners, having two players win the award comapred to Penn State’s one. They also have 14 conference championships compared to Penn States four. But again, Penn State wasn’t in the Big Ten until 1990. But during that time, Wisconsin has won six conference championships.