Wisconsin narrowly miss AP Poll following Luke Fickell's statement win over Penn State

Despite pulling off arguably the biggest win in the entire Luke Fickell era, defeating No. 13-ranked Penn State on the road, the Wisconsin Badgers still find themselves absent from the newest AP Poll. In turn, the Nittany Lions, too, find themselves absent from the rankings, which does make sense given the circumstances.

Rubbing even more salt into the wound, Wisconsin was the first team off the Top 25, receiving 102 votes and being just 16 shy of the Missouri Tigers. Missouri is fresh off of its first loss of the season at the hands of Mississippi State, and just a week removed from a near-embarrassing home loss to the Troy Trojans.

This, of course, does not spell the end of the line for the Badgers, as voters are likely still a bit skeptical as to if this team is real or not. The second-half collapse in Week 1 against Notre Dame is likely still floating in the mind of many, while Penn State itself isn't exactly a proven contender either.

A fair majority of its roster was derived from an Iowa State team that wasn't all that competitive in the Big 12 last year, so seeing them collapse the way they did against Wisconsin isn't exactly the biggest shock.

On top of that, the Badger offense is still far from a proven threat, as it took late-game heroics from a variety of guys to make up for the three-turnover effort from starting quarterback Colton Joseph. He did redeem himself in the end, making a litany of big-time plays down the stretch, but nonetheless, the question looms.

Whats next

Moving forward, Wisconsin will have to continue to prove that they are, in fact, the team that showed up down the stretch of the Penn State game and in the first half of the Notre Dame game. The defense has more than proven itself to be a very formidable unit when they are clicking on all cylinders. Now it becomes a matter of extrapolating that on a week-to-week basis.

The Badgers' next matchup is homecoming, as they invite a struggling Michigan State team into Camp Randall. This marks a perfect opportunity for Wisconsin to prove that it is, in fact, in the upper echelon of Big Ten teams — something that a convincing win would more than exemplify.

As for now, the Badgers just have to focus on continuing to stack reps, win games and remain in good health. Head coach Luke Fickell understands better than anybody that this is a prove-it year for him and his staff, meaning that this past win was nothing more than a step in the right direction.

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