Wisconsin’s schedule finally looks like a break instead of a burden.
For the first time in two seasons, the Badgers are not staring up at one of the toughest slates in college football on paper. That matters for Luke Fickell, whose time in Madison has been shaped by two stubborn realities: quarterback injuries and a brutal strength of schedule.
The quarterback situation is still unresolved, because injuries never come with a warning. But the schedule piece has changed in a big way.
According to ESPN FPI, Wisconsin checks in at No. 40 in strength of schedule. That’s a noticeable shift from the last two years, when the Badgers were near the top of the hardest-schedule conversation. This time around, the spotlight is on SEC-heavy lists, and Wisconsin is nowhere near the top of that pile.
The FPI itself tends to lean toward SEC teams, largely because it rates the bottom of that league more favorably than the bottom of the Big Ten. In that view, the worst SEC teams can still look stronger than the weaker Big Ten teams, which is part of why a team like Arkansas can end up with a tougher schedule than a Big Ten team such as Ohio State. Whether that’s fair or not, Wisconsin has been living in the lower half of the Big Ten mix lately, and the model still has the Badgers at No. 43 overall.
There is one bright spot for Wisconsin inside the conference race: the Badgers have the second-easiest schedule in the Big Ten, with only Penn State drawing a more manageable path.
Here’s how Wisconsin’s opponents stack up in the ESPN FPI rankings: 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.
If Wisconsin handles every team ranked below it in the FPI, the Badgers would finish 8-4. That’s a number plenty of Wisconsin fans would be more than happy to take right now.
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