Wisconsin’s path back to the postseason is still mostly a projection game, but The Athletic’s Scott Dochterman sees the Badgers getting there and landing in a familiar spot.
In his preseason bowl forecast, Dochterman has Wisconsin matched up with Virginia in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl. For a program that is still trying to climb back into bowl contention, that would count as a meaningful step forward under Luke Fickell, who is facing what’s likely his last chance in Madison.
The Badgers know that bowl well. Wisconsin played in the first Duke’s Mayo Bowl in 2020 and beat Wake Forest 42-28 in Charlotte.
Dochterman’s Big Ten pecking order has Wisconsin near the bottom of the league’s postseason picture. He slots the Badgers as the second-to-last Big Ten team in his projections, ahead of only Minnesota and behind Iowa, USC, Michigan, Illinois, Nebraska and Washington.
That kind of finish would put Wisconsin in the range of a seven- or eight-win season, which is generally the bar for the Badgers to get to a bowl. Minnesota represented the Big Ten in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl in 2025 and finished 7-5, while Maryland got the same bowl in 2022 after going 8-5.
Virginia, meanwhile, enters the season with a very different recent résumé. After five straight years without a bowl from 2020-2024, Tony Elliot’s team broke through last fall, won 11 games for the first time in school history and knocked off Missouri in the Gator Bowl.
And if Week 0 is any indication, the Cavaliers may be even better than that projection suggests. Virginia opened against NC State and controlled the game from the start, holding the Wolfpack under 170 total yards. Quarterback Beau Pribula was sharp, completing 9 of 11 passes for 155 yards and two touchdowns while also running for 110 yards.
Because Dochterman’s bowl forecast was published the morning after that game, it’s possible the projection came before Virginia’s lopsided win. Even so, the result only added to the sense that the Cavaliers may be more than a simple mid-tier bowl team this season.
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