Heading into the 2026 college football season, the Wisconsin Badgers know their schedule is much easier, at least on paper.
When the Big Ten preseason media poll was released on Monday, July 27, it was revealed that Wisconsin is scheduled to play the conference’s four weakest teams in 2026.
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The Badgers‘ first conference home game is against Michigan State on Saturday, October 3. It’ll be interesting to see how Luke Fickell’s team looks at this point in the season.
Realistically, they should be 3-1 or 2-2. There would be nothing wrong with losing to Notre Dame, and Wisconsin was ranked No. 12 in the preseason poll, so it wouldn’t be too out of the ordinary to see them lose to No. 6 Penn State, especially since that game is on the road.
The Spartans will come to Camp Randall as the projected 16th-place team in the Big Ten. Seeing as the conference only has 18 teams, that puts them in quite a compromising position.
The bread and butter of Wisconsin’s schedule comes from November 7 to November 21. While two of these games are on the road, Wisconsin gets to host No. 17 Rutgers, and then they’ll play both No. 15 Maryland and No. 18 Purdue on the road.
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This article originally appeared on Badgers Wire: Wisconsin projected to play Big Ten’s four weakest teams in 2026
