Three takeaways from Wisconsin football's 2025 schedule

The Big Ten announced its complete 2025 football schedule on Wednesday afternoon. The Badgers’ opponents were already known, but now dates have been finalized for the 2025 campaign.

Here is Wisconsin’s slate, as announced Wednesday:

If the first thought that comes to mind is “loaded,” get used to it. This is the 18-team Big Ten. The days of a cakewalk through the Big Ten West are over. With ever-increasing parity in the sport and Wisconsin trending in the wrong direction regardless, there’s very few that can be marked off as games the Badgers “should” win.

Without further ado, here’s three quick takeaways from Wisconsin’s 2025 football schedule release:

Wisconsin’s 2024 schedule was similarly stacked, with the Badgers ultimately playing three games against top-5 teams. Wisconsin dropped all three, and it doesn’t get any easier: those games (Alabama, Penn State, Oregon) were all at home. Of the Badgers’ toughest tests in 2025, the majority will take place outside of Madison.

It starts off with a trip to Tuscaloosa in Week 3. Bryant-Denny Stadium, which seats over 100,000 die-hard Crimson Tide fans, will be an unforgiving environment to say the least. Wisconsin has never played in Tuscaloosa, — the Badgers are 1-1 in Madison against Alabama and lost a neutral site game in Arlington, Texas back in 2015.

In their very next road game, the Badgers will travel to Ann Arbor to play in front of yet another 100,000-plus crowd in the Big House. The Badgers haven’t fared well on the road against the Wolverines; they’re 7-29 in the Big House, including 2-6 this century. This series tends to favor the home team, although Michigan waltzed into Camp Randall in 2021 and beat Wisconsin, 38-17, in their last meeting.

The very next road game? Autzen Stadium in Eugene for a rematch with the Ducks. That stadium only seats 54,000, but make no mistake — it can be one of the loudest environments in the sport, especially at night. The Badgers are 1-1 in Eugene, but their lone win came in 1977. Oregon has won four straight in this series.

The prevailing wisdom about Wisconsin’s October slate is that it’s a murderers’ row of opponents, quite possibly the toughest conference stretch for any Big Ten team.

With games at Michigan, versus Iowa, versus Ohio State and at Oregon, that checks out upon first glance.

Still, there’s so much we don’t know about what these programs will look like in 2025. Early December is not the time to evaluate how tough an opponent will be next fall. Every single roster in the nation is in flux right now, and while it would be foolish to assume anything other than a daunting test against teams like Oregon and Ohio State, there’s no telling how the Ducks and Buckeyes, or any other team for that matter, will look come game time.

Of the four teams Wisconsin plays in October, it’s highly likely that none have their starting quarterback currently on their roster. Heck, the Buckeyes might have a new head coach after four years of Ryan Day’s repeated incompetence in The Game. Michigan, Ohio State and Oregon, especially, have exceedingly deep pockets and should be able to construct formidable rosters on paper. Still, that doesn’t guarantee the team will be a juggernaut, especially when the transfer portal is relied upon heavily (how’d that go for preseason No. 10 Florida State this season?)

Yes, this figures to be a tough stretch any way you slice it. But don’t get too caught up in an opponent’s logo — worry about their depth chart. Considering every roster in America is currently in upheaval, we know much less than we think we do about these daunting foes.

Wisconsin won its two buy games to open the year this season, only to fall to 2-2 after a tough back-to-back against Alabama and USC. The Tide are of course scheduled for Week 3 once again, but the Badgers have a real shot to start 3-1 next fall.

Miami (OH) and Middle Tennessee are the only two games that you can truly, confidently say the Badgers should win. Against Alabama, you can pretty confidently say the Badgers will lose. But in Week 4, Wisconsin opens Big Ten play against a Maryland program that just finished 17th in the conference, going 1-8 in Big Ten games. That’s about as close to a should-win as it gets for a Badgers team reeling from consecutive disappointing seasons.

A 3-1 start would be massive in helping Wisconsin get back to bowl eligibility next year. If the Badgers can start 3-1, win a few tight games and not close the season on a five-game losing streak, it should return to the postseason.

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