The College Football Playoff’s second rankings release put Wisconsin in a more interesting spot than it first appears.
At 6-3, the Badgers are sitting in the same record neighborhood as Oregon, Missouri and LSU, and that alone makes the comparison worth digging into. If the committee is going to sort through those teams the way it has so far, Wisconsin has a real argument to be part of that top 25 conversation.
The cleanest way to see it is to line the resumes up side by side.
Oregon is sitting at No. 16 in the CFP rankings, which is a hefty spot for a three-loss team. But the Ducks’ profile is not wildly different from Wisconsin’s.
Oregon’s losses came to No. 4, 25 and unranked opposition, while Wisconsin’s came to No. 4, 5 and 15. On the win side, Oregon owns victories over No. 18 and No. 20, while Wisconsin has a win over No.
That means Oregon is being rewarded for the Ohio State win, even while its other losses are being treated lightly. Wisconsin, meanwhile, is being left out despite taking its losses only to top-15 teams.
The SEC comparison gets even louder.
LSU is ranked No. 21 and Missouri is right behind at No. 22, but neither team has a CFP-ranked win. LSU’s losses came to No. 3, 11 and 19, while Missouri’s were to No. 6, 19 and an unranked opponent. Missouri also has the loss to Mississippi State, which stands out as the bad loss in the group.
That leaves Wisconsin in a strange place. The Badgers have a stronger resume than both LSU and Missouri, yet they remain on the outside looking in. If LSU is being protected because it has no bad losses, Wisconsin fits that same broad category too, since its losses have all come against top-15 teams.
So this is not really a case arguing that Wisconsin absolutely belongs in the rankings. It’s more a reminder of two things: the Badgers are closer than many people think, and there are teams with weaker resumes sitting ahead of them.
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