The odds are against the Badgers to reach the postseason in 2025.
The Wisconsin Badgers snapped a 22-year bowl streak last season when they failed to make the postseason, ending with a 5-7 record after five straight losses to end the year.
It was a demoralizing way to finish the season for the Badgers, who lost all three rivalry games by at least 17 points, while also suffering close defeats to top-five ranked Penn State and Oregon.
Now, the Badgers have completely shifted their roster, hitting the transfer portal hard this season as they made serious schematic changes on both sides of the ball. With all the movement, head coach Luke Fickell is confident that Wisconsin can overcome a brutal schedule and return to the postseason in 2025.
Will that ultimately be the case?
CBS Sports’s David Cobb broke down every Power 4 team that did not make a bowl game in 2024, sharing his predictions for how their seasons would end in 2025. He separated teams into categories: Guarantee it, Trending up, Flip a coin, An uphill battle, and Longshots.
The Badgers fell into the second-lowest category, with Cobb seeing them having an uphill battle to climb to return to the postseason.
Snagging Luke Fickell from Cincinnati seemed like a home run hire for Wisconsin,” Cobb wrote. “But he’s just 12-13 through two seasons and faces a treacherous path to bowl eligibility in Year 3. In addition to a game at Alabama, the Badgers face a Big Ten gauntlet that includes seven foes that finished with winning records in the league last season. Among them are Michigan, Ohio State and Oregon. Four league wins will likely be a necessity to go bowling, and it’s hard to see where they’ll come from.”
That sentiment is in line with the oddsmakers, as nearly every major sportsbook has Wisconsin as a considerable underdog to go over their win total of 5.5 games.
Cobb placed Utah, Kansas, and Auburn in the “Guarantee it” category, while Houston and Florida State made it into the “Trending up” category.
The CBS analyst believes that Michigan State actually has a better chance of bowl eligibility than the Badgers this season, pointing out the easier schedule as the reason why they’re in the “Flip a coin” category.
But, it’s notable that several projections currently have Wisconsin on the outside looking in for the second consecutive year, which wouldn’t be a good sign for Luke Fickell as he tries to turn the ship.