The Wisconsin Badgers did everything they were supposed to do on Saturday. They handled Michigan State 31-3, kept the momentum rolling, and stretched their winning streak to four straight after the road upset of No. 13 Penn State.
But the AP Top 25 still didn’t open the door.
Instead of moving into the rankings, Wisconsin slid from the top spot among teams receiving votes to No. 3 in that category. The Badgers were left on the outside despite a win that looked like the kind that should have been enough to push them in.
The bigger picture around them barely changed. The Top 25 saw just one team fall out, with No.
24 Kentucky dropping two spots to become the top team receiving votes. Pitt was the lone new arrival, landing at No. 25 after a 35-33 road upset of Virginia Tech.
Beyond that, it was a quiet week in the poll. The bottom five teams all won, yet three of them still slipped - Houston, Boise State and SMU among them.
Missouri made the biggest move of the week, vaulting to No. 14 after blasting No. 8 Florida at home.
And Wake Forest, led by Wisconsin native Jake Dickert, also sat ahead of the Badgers in the voting. The Deacons are 4-1, have already beaten No.
16 Louisville on the road, and followed that up with a 57-3 rout of Stanford. Their lone loss came against Miami by 13.
Wisconsin now has a bye in Week 6, but the next chance is coming fast. In two weeks, the Badgers will meet UCLA, which is currently ranked and has been rolling under head coach Bob Chesney.
In Other News...
Wisconsins PFF Grades Show One Big Reason To Feel Better
After taking care of Penn State on the road, Wisconsin backed it up at home against Michigan State and pushed its record to 4-1 overall and 2-0 in Big Ten play. The latest Pro Football Focus grades offered another layer to the encouraging start, with several Badgers standing out in the kind of areas that tend to travel well in conference play, especially along the line on both sides of the ball.
The numbers pointed to real progress in pass blocking, run defense and pass rushing, the sort of across-the-board work that can make a team harder to play against as the schedule stiffens. Wisconsin still has plenty to prove, but the early return from those grades is hard to miss: this is a group getting better in the trenches, and that usually tells you something about how sustainable a start really is. [Read more 🡒]
Wisconsins Big Ten Rise Suddenly Feels Real Under Luke Fickell
The Big Ten picture has started to look a lot different lately, and Wisconsin is a big reason why. In a league where the weekly rankings are being driven by recent results instead of preseason reputation, the Badgers have been part of the conversation as the race tightens around them. With Indiana at No. 1 and Ohio State still right there, the standings are being shaped by momentum as much as pedigree, which makes every recent win and loss feel bigger than usual.
For Luke Fickell, that shift matters because it gives Wisconsin a clearer sense of where it stands in a conference that has been anything but static. The Badgers are no longer just trying to keep pace with expectations from the outside. They are trying to turn this stretch into something more lasting, even as the leagues next round of games threatens to reshuffle the order again. [Read more 🡒]
Colton Joseph Just Changed The Feel Of Wisconsins Offense
Colton Josephs breakout against Michigan State gave Wisconsin a much-needed jolt and, maybe more importantly, a different look on offense. The Badgers got production through the air and on the ground from their quarterback, and Josephs 145 passing yards paired with 141 rushing yards made the attack feel more balanced and far less predictable than it had earlier in the season. His day also brought hardware, as he was named co-Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week, the first Wisconsin player to claim that honor since 2021.
For Wisconsin, the bigger significance may be what Josephs performance suggests about where this offense can go next. His rushing total and touchdown run set notable program marks for a Badgers quarterback, giving the coaching staff a reminder that the position can be a real rushing threat, not just a pocket-based operation. After a showing like that, the question around the program shifts from whether the offense can change its feel to how much of that new identity can stick. [Read more 🡒]