Wisconsin football faces an uphill battle in 2025, not only due to their struggles internally, but also because they have a very difficult schedule. At this point, seven wins would be a miraculous and welcome outcome as crazy as it sounds, but for now, most people view Wisconsin as a bottom feeder team.
According to Circa Sports and reporter Brett McMurphy, only 20 Power Four teams have a win total of 5.5 or worse, and the Badgers are one of them.
Wisconsin projected as bottom third team in 2025
There are 70 Power Four schools, meaning Wisconsin is projected to be in the bottom 30%, a place they've rarely been over the past two decades. To make matters worse, of the six other Big Ten schools on this unfortunate list, only Maryland is on the Badgers' schedule this year.
It is a preseason projection, so take it with a grain of salt. Just look at what Badger basketball did with those preseason rankings last season. However, there are some legitimate concerns that this projection could even be a little generous. To win six games, the most likely path involves beating Miami (OH), Middle Tennessee, Maryland, Minnesota and some combination of two likely ranked teams. It could be that Wisconsin stumbles against one of the four aforementioned programs, and would then need three wins versus a ranked opponent, something that Luke Fickell has yet to do (0-6) as the Badgers head coach.
It's not all gloom and doom. The new offensive system should help. The new offensive coordinator and quarterback will almost surely be improved. But to see seven or eight wins this season will be hard, very hard.