College football is in a strange place with eligibility requirements. Earlier this year Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia won a lawsuit that allowed JUCO players to get extra eligibility. There have always been redshirt years; there are also medical redshirts that can be granted, and players who played during COVID in 2020 were granted another bonus year of eligibility. Wisconsin will now have a player in 2025 who will be entering his sixth season, and it's good news for the Badgers.
Might have missed it, but Ben Barten is returning to #Badgers for a sixth season, he says. pic.twitter.com/MADm5aebad
— Evan Flood (@Evan_Flood) January 25, 2025
Defensive lineman Ben Barten will use his final sixth season of eligibility in 2025
Barten has only recorded stats for Wisconsin for three seasons:2022-2024. Last season was his best season, recording 22 total tackles in a mostly run-stuffing role. He only has 38 total tackles in his career, so his 22 was huge for 2024, and he will be an important piece for 2025 along the line.
It looks like the extra eligibility came from his 2021 season. He redshirted in 2020 and in 2021, never played in any games, and may have been injured. In 2022, he played in seven games; in 2023 and 2024, he played in every game. He will be officially out of seasons to play football after this final season in 2025.
In 2023, coach Luke Fickell commented on how impressed he was with Barten, "He's done nothing but continue to impress me every single day. Every opportunity that he gets to go in the game, he's earned. And it wasn't just because we're thin or we don't have as many guys. He has done a really great job from where he was, I thought, in spring football to even where it was at the start of fall camp to where he is now."
This is a big addition by retention for the Badgers. They will be able to keep a veteran, play-making, run-stuffing presence along the defensive line for one more season.