Wisconsin fans have waited 2 seasons to see the Badgers disappear from this list

The Wisconsin Badgers have had a couple of constant realities for Luke Fickell since he came to Wisconsin in the hopes of taking a jump forward for a historic and proud football program. It's only been backward since, and while there are a lot of things you can blame and all of them are true, two realities seem to have haunted Fickell: Quarterback injuries and incredibly hard strength of schedule.

Hopefully, this season has neither of those problems. The quarterback situation is still "To Be Determined" as injuries can't be predicted. But the strength of schedule is vastly different. It's the first time in two seasons that Wisconsin has not been at the top or towards the top of the list of hardest seasons on paper. This year, it's mostly loaded with SEC teams, and Wisconsin is nowhere to be found.

Last year and the year before, Wisconsin was a top contender for the hardest schedule. This year, the Badgers are sitting at No. 40 on the ESPN FPI strength of schedule list. There are a couple of factors to consider when it comes to this list for the Badgers, but first:

The Wisconsin Badgers have the No. 40 SOS according to ESPN FPI

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The ESPN FPI has a tendency to be weighted towards SEC teams, as you can see from above. The reason is often that ESPN overvalues the bottom of the SEC and disvalues the bottom of the Big Ten. So, in other words, ESPN thinks the worst teams in the SEC are a lot better than the worst teams in the Big Ten. So when Arkansas is stuck playing a good chunk of the top-rated teams, they get a harder strength of schedule than the closest Big Ten team, Ohio State.

ESPN may be right or wrong with that, but the Big Ten does have a good chunk of teams towards the bottom that aren't very good. Wisconsin has lately been thrown in that mix, and even now. The Badgers are rated No. 43 on the ESPN FPI, so yes, still towards the bottom. Though there are six teams ranked lower than them in the conference.

The other thing to notice for Wisconsin is how the Badgers' strength of schedule stacks up against the rest of the Big Ten and the ranking of the opponents they are playing. As of now, Wisconsin has the second-easiest schedule in the conference, with only Penn State having a more manageable one.

As for the opponent rankings, it looks like this for Wisconsin: No. 3 Notre Dame, Unranked Western Illinois, No. 131 Eastern Michigan, No. 17 Penn State, No. 65 Michigan State, No. 64 UCLA, No. 13 USC, No. 25 Iowa, No. 67 Rutgers, No. 61 Maryland, No. 71 Purdue, and No. 63 Minnesota.

Thus, if Wisconsin simply beats all the teams ranked lower than them next season according to ESPN FPI, the Badgers will go 8-4. I think any Wisconsin fan would take that and run with it.

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