One of the sure signs the season is right around the corner is when the College Football Preseason Coaches Top-25 Poll is released. After it was released earlier today, many fan bases took to social media to talk trash about it, prop it up, or fall in love with it. Wisconsin fans did none of this as the Badgers are nowhere to be found. Not in the top-25 nor the "receiving votes" category, and Wisconsin shouldn't be; the Badgers are coming off a four-win season.
Yet, it somehow sets up the crucial 2026 season for the Badgers. It puts before Wisconsin the best teams on their schedule, but it also sets the bar for where Wisconsin can get to if they reach their goals. It also reveals something that feels startlingly different than last season. Let's dig in.
BREAKING: College Football Preseason Coaches Poll👀https://t.co/gnEe967fmH pic.twitter.com/W2xBYGZWYe
— On3 (@On3) August 4, 2026
Wisconsin has four teams on their schedule in the Coach's Top-25 Poll
Related: Projecting Wisconsin football's 2026 depth chart with fall camp days away
The Badgers feature on their 2026 schedule only four top-25 teams. The highest being the very first game of the season with the No. 5 Notre Dame Fighting Irish. There are the No. 14 USC Trojans, No. 17 Penn State, and No. 22 Iowa Hawkeyes. This is a major contrast to last season's preseason coaches poll and Wisconsin's schedule. The Badgers had No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Penn State, No. 7 Oregon, No. 8 Alabama, No. 12 Illinois, No. 14 Michigan, and No. 19 Indiana.
Other teams on their schedule went into the rankings at times, like Washington and Iowa. But those were the preseason numbers, and so the Badgers went from having seven ranked teams to four and from four in the top-10 to only one. From three in the top-5 to only one.
This sets up the season for Wisconsin, which now has a much more manageable schedule; even their ranked opponents aren't as bad as last season's ranked opponents. But the other parts of their schedule are easier and more winnable. With Luke Fickell putting a better product and roster on the field this season and a easier schedule, things are truly looking up.
This poll also gives the Badgers a bit of a road map to finding the "Wisconsin" name in the rankings. If Wisconsin can take care of business and beat all the teams outside of the rankings, that gives them eight wins. Get one of these, a low-hanging fruit of Penn State or a pressure-packed USC, and nine wins are on the table. It certainly feels like a pipe dream and overly optimistic, but outside those four ranked teams on Wisconsin's schedule, there isn't even another on their schedule receiving votes.
The schedule is in front of them, the rankings reveal it, and the good news for the Badgers is that in a crucial 2026, everything is in front of them, and everything is achievable that clearly wasn't last season.
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