When was the last time Wisconsin football truly imposed its will over a Big Ten opponent?
If you can’t tell me off the top of your head, that would hardly be surprising. You have to go back to the 2024 season, the second year of the Luke Fickell era, when the Badgers did it twice in a row, beating Purdue 52-6 at home followed by a road smackdown of Rutgers, 42-7.
Of course, Wisconsin went on to finish 5-7 that fall, dropping its final five games. That team, quarterbacked by Braedyn Locke, didn’t have anything close to the momentum or legitimately positive vibes from the locker room these Badgers do in 2026.
Wisconsin football now sits at 4-1 with a 2-0 mark in Big Ten play heading into their bye week. Ask any somewhat level-headed Badgers fan before the season started, and they would take that in a heartbeat.
The biggest win from the first five games of the season? A stunning 17-point comeback on the road against then-No. 13 Penn State, a win that brought the Badgers back to the precipice of the national conversation and effectively doused the flames of Fickell’s hot seat.
The long-awaited ecstasy from the top-15 road upset didn’t last long, however. The ensuing Friday night, Penn State got throttled 34-13 by Northwestern in a game that was even less competitive than the final score indicates. The Wildcats gashed the Nittany Lions, running for an unconscionable 413 yards.
That led many to question the legitimacy of the Badgers’ narrow win over Penn State, especially with how poorly the offense played for much of the game. If Wisconsin could barely beat a Penn State team that just got thoroughly manhandled by Northwestern, how much does that win in Happy Valley actually mean?
Similar questions about Wisconsin arose following its 31-3 shellacking of Michigan State. Sure, it was a dominant victory in all three phases, but the Spartans are in a rebuilding year and clearly devoid of talent up and down the roster. Can and should we actually get excited about a win over a clear Big Ten bottom-feeder?
I’ll answer both of those questions in quick succession: a whole lot, and absolutely.
