The spring transfer portal is officially closed, which means that Wisconsin won't lose anyone else to it. They could still gain players who are already in it, but the list is slowly dwindling. According to 24/7 Sports, there are about 100 3-star players still left in the portal. The rankings won't change much for the Badgers, and that is what the focus of this article is: how the Badgers stack up in the transfer portal rankings.
It's some good news/bad news for Wisconsin fans. As of now, 27 players have left via the transfer portal, and 20 players have arrived (in both the winter and the spring). This may affect some of the rankings that you will see below, which will be explained for On3.com's rankings.
Wisconsin is ranked 3rd in the Big Ten transfer portal rankings by 24/7 Sports
24/7 Sports has a much more favorable rating for the Badgers than On3.com, and there's a big reason for that, but we will get to that in a moment. 24/7 Sports has the Badgers listed as third in the Big Ten behind Oregon and Nebraska. According to their rankings, Wisconsin has added seven 4-star players and 12 3-star players. Oregon has added the same amount of 4-star players but with one 5-star ranking to push them to the top.
Overall 24/7 Sports has Wisconsin at 14th in all of the FBS. The rankings aren't as kind for On3.com.
Wisconsin is ranked 17th in the Big Ten transfer portal rankings by On3.com
As you can see, the disparity between 24/7 Sports and On3.com is huge, and the biggest reason is that On3.com takes into account the players lost, not just the players added. The transfers out combined for an On3.com score of 69.00, while the transfers coming in only scored 65.80. On3.com sees this as a significant loss. While the Badgers added two 4-star transfers but only lost one, it's the 21 3-star players out who cost them the most.
This puts them at 66th nationally, according to On3.com, which is a vast difference for the program. Maybe that is why Luke Fickell has spent so much time talking about fit, letting the guys leave who didn't fit, and bringing in guys who do. He is looking for specific types of players, not just any players or players with star ratings.