There could be books written on a college team's decision to release a depth chart or not. There are coaches who won't release them at all for the entirety of the season. Florida State's Mike Norvell recently made this decision. There are others that release the exact same depth chart week after week regardless of how it changes throughout the season. Then there is what Wisconsin is doing versus Notre Dame in Week 1.
The Badgers told reporters in the opening week press conference that there would be zero public depth chart for Notre Dame, and the reasoning is, "The in-season depth charts are based off the previous game's usage." And it continues with "we made the decision not to speculate on this prior to the season." Ultimately, the language was that it was the SID's (Sports Information Director) call, not the coaches'. Right...
No depth chart released in today's Badgers game notes. UW Brand Communications made the decision because: "The in-season depth charts are based off the previous game’s usage ... made the decision not to speculate on this prior to the season."
— Colten Bartholomew (@CBartWSJ) August 31, 2026
SIDs' call, not coaches, per them.
Depth charts are projections not rules but coaches like to hide them
Related: Notre Dame will be without a top playmaker against Wisconsin in Week 1
This is a ridiculous reason to not release a depth chart, and maybe there's a better reason behind the scenes, but the public reason is silly. Depth charts are projections, not rules. The whole point of a depth chart is to say, if the top guy can't play or takes a rep off, this is the next guy up. It's not even a hard-and-fast rule; coaches can do whatever they want, but to say that it's based on the previous game is dumb and not even how depth charts work.
This could be that Luke Fickell didn't want to give the SID a depth chart, and the SID responded with 'Well, I guess you can get away with it in week 1, but week 2 we will know based on your usage of week 1.'This feels insane, but it could be a reality.
Coaches somehow believe that depth charts give the opponent some sort of competitive advantage. There are plenty of times that coaches won't release a depth chart for this exact reason. Maybe say that, if that's the reason? That reason is still over-reactive, but at least it makes more sense than "We need to see Game 1 before we can release a depth chart."
If you want to play devil's advocate and defend this decision, you could argue that Wisconsin has a ton of newcomers with basically position battles all over the roster, so not revealing how that works out could help... slightly? It's not convincing considering Notre Dame is the No. 4 team in the country and is more concerned about their own roster than Wisconsin's right now, but sure. Notre Dame did release a depth chart vs. Wisconsin. So there's that.
At the end of the day, it's a dumb reason not to release a depth chart. Having a depth chart is good for the fans and media, and it makes the team feel a bit more accessible. But more and more coaches are finding ways around not doing a depth chart, and it's exhausting.
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