The Badgers aren’t seen very favorably ahead of the 2025 season.
With the 2025 season just around the corner, it’s time for the annual Big Ten preseason polls.
Earlier this week, cleveland.com did its 15th annual Big Ten preseason poll, with a total of 24 voters, including at least one beat writer from each Big Ten team, participating. Here’s how the polls ended up, with first-place votes in parentheses, the total number of votes after that, and the team’s average rank on polls as the final number:
No. 1 Penn State (11) 435 1.60
No. 2 Ohio State (10) 431 1.76
No. 3 Oregon (2) 405 2.80
No. 4 Illinois 353 4.88
No. 5 Michigan (1) 346 5.16
No. 6 Indiana 305 6.80
No. 7 Iowa 287 7.52
No. 8 Nebraska 277 7.92
No. 9 USC 269 8.24
No. 10 Washington 216 10.36
No. 11 Minnesota 192 11.32
No. 12 Wisconsin 159 12.60
No. 13 Michigan State 135 13.60
No. 13 Rutgers 135 13.60
No. 15 UCLA 134 13.64
No. 16 Maryland 91 15.36
No. 17 Northwestern 65 16.40
No. 18 Purdue 39 17.44
The Wisconsin Badgers finished 12th, earning 159 total votes and having an average rank of 12.60 on the polls.
Wisconsin is facing just one team below it in the rankings this year, Maryland, showing how tough its conference schedule will be in 2025. Additionally, they did receive last-place votes alongside Maryland, Northwestern, and Purdue.
While they aren’t facing Penn State, ranked as the No. 1 team in the conference this year, they are facing the next six teams on the list: Ohio State, Oregon, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, and Iowa.
The polls also asked voters to predict how many teams would make the College Football Playoff. Penn State, Oregon, and Ohio State were regular features on the list. The Nittany Lions were on every poll but one, while the Ducks and Buckeyes were on every poll but two.
50 percent of voters believe the Big Ten will have four playoff teams, while 41.7 percent believe they’ll have three. The remaining two voters had five playoff teams in the conference.
With Penn State topping the list, it’s the first time since 2014 that Ohio State or Michigan hasn’t been the preseason No. 1, according to cleveland.com.