• Wisconsin defeated Illinois 27-10, holding the Illini to a season-low point total.
• Outside linebacker Darryl Peterson recorded three sacks, the most by a Badgers player in a single game since 2021.
• Despite the win, Wisconsin’s quarterback was sacked five times and the team incurred a costly personal foul penalty.

MADISON – A look back at Wisconsin’s 27-10 victory over Illinois on Saturday, Nov. 22, at Camp Randall Stadium.

Big picture

Playing the nation’s toughest schedule appears to have made the Badgers a tougher team. Wisconsin entered play assured of a second straight sub .500 season and Illinois was ranked in the College Football Playoff top 25, but pretty much from start to finish the Badgers showed they were the better team.  They never trailed and held Illinois to what tied its season-low point total. The Illini’s 298 total yards were also third-lowest behind Indiana (161) and Ohio State (295).

Turning point: Darrion Dupree breaks loose, gives UW a cushion

There was still almost two whole quarters left to play when sophomore Darrion Dupree broke loose for an 84-yard touchdown run that, after the extra point, pushed the Badgers advantage to 17-7.

Besides putting a jolt into the crowd the score gave a Wisconsin team that doesn’t have much room for error a two-score lead. The Badgers went 80 yards for a touchdown on their first possession and closed the half with a field goal, but this was the first point in the night they had control of the game.

Thumbs up: Dupree gets a lot of help on TD run

• It took a lot of blocks to pave the way for Dupree’s 84-yard TD run. Tight end Tucker Ashcraft started things with a block out of the backfield and center Davis Heinzen and guards Joe Brunner and Kerry Kodanko created space up the middle.
• Another gem from Dupree’s run: Receiver Eugene Hilton fooled Illinois cornerback Torrie Cox Jr. into thinking a pass was thrown his way and ran his defender off the play. It’s the main reason there was no one downfield to challenge Dupree at the end of the run.
• Wisconsin fumbled three times but didn’t lose any of them. The biggest recovery was made by Ashcraft, who covered the ball after a 6-yard gain by freshman quarterback Carter Smith on the Badgers’ first drive. That possession ended up going 80 yards for a touchdown.
• Graduate outside linebacker Darryl Peterson finished with three sacks, raising his career-best in that statistic for the second straight week. The last Badgers with three sacks in a game was Nick Herbig in 2021.

Box score | UW schedule | Standings

Thumbs down: UW gets hit with personal fouls, takes unnecessary sacks

• Tyrese Fearbry was hit with a personal foul penalty in the fourth quarter that allowed Illinois to start possession at its 40-yard line.
• Smith was sacked five times, but two of those came when he ran out of bounds on a scramble rather than throwing ball away.

More: Wisconsin’s win over Illinois shows Carter Smith’s growth, Hunter Simmons’ role

Wisconsin football schedule: The Badgers travel to Minnesota in battle for Paul Bunyan’s Axe on Nov. 29

The trophy cases are bare for the Badgers, but they can fix that next Saturday in Minneapolis. Wisconsin has lost three of the last four meetings to the Gophers, including a 24-7 loss last season that guaranteed UW a losing season. Minnesota (6-5, 4-4) has lost two straight and three of its last four.  

A popular Wisconsin ski resort that has been around since the 1960s has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as it fights to survive another winter on the slopes.

Midwest Skiing Company LLC, which owns and operates the Whitecap Mountains Resort in Upson, Wisconsin, said in court papers that it filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday after back-to-back winters with “extremely low” snowfall gutted its revenue and left it buried in debt.

The resort, with 43 ski runs across 400 acres, has been touted as the “snowiest ski resort in Wisconsin,” a court filing in its bankruptcy case said, adding that Whitecap Mountain annually gets “some of the highest snowfall in the state making for excellent conditions and regular powder days.”

However, the past two winters have brought little of the snow that built the resort’s reputation.

Snowfall at the resort plummeted from 260 inches in the 2022-2023 season to less than 30 inches the next winter, slashing revenue from roughly $1.4 million to about $197,000, the court papers said. The most recent season brought less than 60 inches of snow and only about $532,000 in total revenue.

“The low revenue in 2023 put the Debtor in a position where it needed additional funding to cover its revenue shortage,” said the filing. “While the Debtor survived the 2023-24 season, it required short-term financing to bridge the gap until the next ski season and payoff several expenses.”

Lender declared resort ‘in default’

The resort — which is all-season, but known for its skiing — turned to private lender Brighton Asset Management for a short-term loan to help it get by. Another “slow” 2024-2025 season prevented the resort’s owner from extending or refinancing the loan, the court papers say.

Brighton said Midwest Skiing Company was “in default” on about $1.86 million in debt and, through a lawsuit, moved to foreclose on the resort’s property, according to the court motion seeking approval to use cash collateral.

A court ruled in favor of Brighton in August.

Midwest Skiing Company filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy “to put a stop to the collection efforts and speculation within its community and among customers over the upcoming snow season,” the filings said.

“The automatic stay under the bankruptcy code stops Brighton from moving forward with collection through foreclosure or replevin,” attorneys for Midwest Skiing Company wrote in the filing.

Customers and employees “can be confident,” the filing said, that Midwest Skiing Company “will retain control and continue operations through the upcoming snow season.”

In its bankruptcy petition, Midwest Skiing Company estimated its assets as between $1 million and $10 million, with the same range for its estimated liabilities.

Attorneys for the company wrote in court papers that the Chapter 11 filing “provides a path forward” for the resort “to continue its operations for years to come under a plan of reorganization.”

The court papers say that Midwest Skiing Company — which has been owned by ski and hospitality industry veteran David Dziuban since 2008 — merged this week with Glebe Mountains, Inc., allowing for a “more efficient and less costly reorganization.”

Attorneys for Midwest Skiing Company and Brighton did not immediately respond to requests for comment by Business Insider on Friday.

The Wisconsin Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big. Here’s a look at Nov. 20, 2025, results for each game: