Wisconsin
Vote: What’s the biggest Wisconsin sports disappointment in 2024?

Wisconsin football’s Luke’s Fickell shares his message for team, fans
The Badgers football coach spoke to reporters following the team’s 24-7 loss to Minnesota Saturday at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison.
The year 2024 wasn’t necessarily a banner one for Wisconsin sports fans. Which of these will most stick with you in 2025 and beyond? What’s the biggest disappointment in 2024?
Vote for your pick below.
Luke Fickell and the Wisconsin Badgers football team
Year 2 of the Luke Fickell Era was supposed to push the program a step forward from the 2023-24 team that barely qualified for a bowl game.
Instead, against a tougher schedule and after the loss of starting quarterback Tyler Van Dyke, the Wisconsin Badgers took a step backward, finishing 5-7 and missing a bowl game for the first time since 2001.
Fickell fired offensive coordinator Phil Longo, but with another brutal schedule ahead and no clear-cut top option at quarterback, the 2024-25 season looks bleak.
Giannis gets hurt and the Bucks stumble in the playoffs
A late-season calf injury to Giannis Antetokounmpo kept the Milwaukee Bucks star from the playoffs, and Milwaukee was dismissed in six games by the Indiana Pacers in the first round, a second consecutive first-round playoff loss.
Damian Lillard also missed two games in the series and was limited when he played. Though Khris Middleton did what he could, a strange season (featuring a mid-season coaching switch from Adrian Griffin to Doc Rivers) ended in disappointment.
Mets stun the Brewers in the playoffs
A fielding miscue opened the door for a New York Mets win in Game 1 of the National League wild-card series, and after a thrilling rally in Game 2, the Milwaukee Brewers lost Game 3 in the biggest gut-punch imaginable.
With one out in the ninth, Pete Alonso’s three-run homer turned a 2-0 lead to a 3-2 deficit, and the Mets went on to win, 4-2, on their way to the NLCS.
The Brewers haven’t advanced out of the first playoff round since 2018.
Packers drop a heartbreaker to 49ers
The 2023 Green Bay Packers season finished as a success, but there’s the pain of wondering what else could have been.
In the divisional round of the playoffs, Green Bay had a 21-17 lead on San Francisco until the final 2 minutes, when Christian McCaffrey scored a go-ahead touchdown with 1:07 remaining in the 24-21 loss.
Wisconsin, Marquette lose to double-digit seeds in NCAA Tournament
Marquette has to get credit for reaching the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2013, registering an 81-77 victory over Colorado in the second round. But upstart 11th seed NC State, a team that only made the tournament thanks to five wins in five days to claim the ACC Tournament, dispatched second-seeded Marquette at that point, 67-58, en route to a Final Four berth.
Wisconsin had it much worse, garnering a No. 5 seed and losing pretty convincingly in the opening round to 12th-seeded James Madison, 72-61; JMU lost by 38 points in the next game against Duke.

Wisconsin
Another Wisconsin Task Force 1 group heads to Texas join recovery efforts

MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) -More Wisconsinites headed to Texas on Saturday morning to help with continued recovery efforts following the deadly floods last week.
This crew includes 16 members of the Wisconsin Emergency Management’s swiftwater team. They will be assisting with searching for missing people in Texas Hill Country. The group is expected to be deployed for 14 days..
They join another crew of five people from Wisconsin Task Force 1 who left on Tuesday with three K9 units for their 14-day deployment. At least 120 people in Texas are dead, and nearly 200 people are still missing.
Click here to download the WMTV15 News app or our WMTV15 First Alert weather app.
Copyright 2025 WMTV. All rights reserved.
Wisconsin
Wisconsin football top class of 2026 safety target commits to Notre Dame

Wisconsin top class of 2026 safety target Nick Reddish committed to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Friday.
Reddish, who recently whittled his list of finalists down to four, elected to join Marcus Freeman’s program over opportunities with the Badgers, Indiana Hoosiers and Virginia Tech Hokies. He becomes the second high-profile 2026 safety target to commit elsewhere in the past few days, following three-star Jowell Combay.
The rising senior joins a Notre Dame class of 2026 that currently ranks No. 4 in the nation with 26 commitments, including 15 four or five-star recruits.
The rising senior received his offer from UW on May 14 before officially visiting Madison the weekend of May 30. He then made a trip to Virginia Tech the weekend of June 6 before a visit with Notre Dame the weekend of June 12.
247Sports considers the Independence High School product the No. 681 overall recruit, No. 57 safety and No. 31 player from his home state of North Carolina.
Reddish’s chance of landing with Notre Dame did not shock those invested in his recruiting journey. Several recruiting outlets projected the Charlotte, North Carolina, native to join the Fighting Irish, including On3’s recruiting machine.
As of July 11, Wisconsin’s class of 2026 ranks No. 49 in the nation and No. 15 in the Big Ten with 15 players committed. Four-star wide receiver Jayden Petit and four-star running back Amari Latimer impacted the program’s national standing in late June. Still, UW’s failure to secure additional commitments has left it in need of some new talent.
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Wisconsin
Ranking Michigan football’s 2025 schedule from 12 to 1: No. 8 Wisconsin Badgers

Big Ten Media Days is just a few weeks away, and then fall camp will begin. Michigan football isn’t too far out, and it’s time to start analyzing the Wolverines’ schedule for this fall.
In our series breaking down Michigan’s schedule, we are going to rank the Wolverines’ opponents from least difficult to most (12-1). Coming in at No. 8 will be Michigan’s fifth opponent it faces on October 4: Wisconsin Badgers
2024 record: 5-7
Conference: Big Ten (14th-place finish in ’24)
Overall Returning Production: 12th (67%)
Offensive returning production: 26th (68%)
Defensive returning production: 16th (67%)
SPI Rankings: 37th (7.2)
FPI Rankings: 38th (6.3)
It hasn’t been the storybook start for Luke Fickell at Wisconsin. After taking the Cincinnati Bearcats to the College Football Playoff, Fickell has went 7-6 and 5-7, in his first two seasons with the Badgers. And things don’t get any easier for Wisconsin in 2025 — the Badgers have one of the hardest schedules in all of football.
The Badgers are hoping to get their passing attack in order after having the 102nd-ranked passing attack in the country last year. Maryland went out and landed Maryland transfer Billy Edwards Jr. to start. Wisconsin also returns Vinny Anthony at WR, and landed OSU transfer Jayden Ballard.
It’s a prime matchup for Michigan when it sees Wisconsin. The Wolverines will get Wisconsin following an early bye week this year. The Wolverines will take a small break after heading to Lincoln to face Nebraska, and Michigan gets its head coach, Sherrone Moore, back, following the self-imposed suspension.
In case you missed it:
No. 12: New Mexico
No. 11: Central Michigan
No. 10: Purdue
No. 9: Northwestern Wildcats
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