Column: Wisconsin football can’t hide behind a difficult 2025 schedule
Wisconsin football faces one of the nation’s toughest 2025 schedules, but progress (and wins) are still non-negotiable for Luke Fickell and the Badgers.
If you’ve skimmed the Wisconsin football program's 2025 schedule or listened to talking heads discuss the Badgers, then you already know it’s difficult. Pair that with the state of the program, and the mountain that Luke Fickell and this team need to climb looks even more daunting.
Outside expectations aren’t exactly sky-high. Vegas oddsmakers don’t see much wiggle room either, opening Wisconsin at +15000 to win the Big Ten conference with an over/under set at 5.5 wins. That humbling total follows a 5-7 finish in 2024, capped by a five-game skid to end the year, which snapped a bowl streak that had stretched all the way back to 2001.
"Last year was not the standard, and it's pretty obvious to be able to say," Fickell said at Big Ten Media Day. “And we're talking about the way that we finished last year. That's not the standard. That's not the expectation. I was not brought here thinking that's in any way what we expect at the University of Wisconsin. But I'm not here to dwell upon last year either.”
According to the data, Wisconsin’s 2025 slate features the third-highest opponent win percentage in the country at 64.8%. Preseason polls don’t mean much, but the preseason AP Top 25 that was released shows just how loaded the schedule is expected to be. The Badgers will host the No. 3 Ohio State Buckeyes and No. 12 Illinois Fighting Illini, while traveling to face No. 7 Oregon, No. 8 Alabama, No. 14 Michigan, and No. 20 Indiana.
And then you’ve got the rivalry games. Iowa comes to Camp Randall, and Minnesota waits in Minneapolis. Both had their way with Wisconsin a year ago, outscoring the Badgers 68-17 in a pair of humbling losses. Stack those on top of an already brutal conference slate, and even the most optimistic fan might have a hard time guaranteeing bowl eligibility.
That’s the slate, and Wisconsin didn’t receive a single preseason vote for the first time since 2009.
Here’s the kicker: 10 of the 12 teams Wisconsin will face made a bowl game last season. That’s not just tough, that’s walking into a gauntlet.
This isn’t about having a hard schedule on paper. It’s about lining up almost every week against programs that know how to win and have the hardware to prove it. That's something Fickell hasn't proven in Madison.
The truth is, no one’s coming to fix it for Wisconsin either. People love to talk about how the system needs guardrails, how there needs to be accountability, but that’s not the era we live in anymore. Media rights deals are too big, the money’s too entrenched, and university presidents aren’t about to put their own cash cow on the chopping block. The enforcement mechanisms that once mattered in college athletics don’t carry the same weight when TV partners are writing blank checks.
What that means on the ground is simple: you can’t bank on the NCAA's ecosystem leveling the playing field. The sport isn’t going to slow down, and the haves aren’t going to fall back to the pack because someone higher up decides it’s the “right thing to do.” That's not happening. Wisconsin either climbs the mountain or risks getting buried under it.
Fickell enters Year 3 as head coach at Wisconsin, 12-13 overall and 8-10 in Big Ten play. He’s still looking for his first win over a ranked opponent. Lifetime, Fickell's record against AP Top 25 teams sits at 8-20, including a 0-6 mark since taking over the Badgers. Those numbers are the unfortunate reality that lurks behind all the “mountain to climb” analogies.
“Guess what you signed up for,” Fickell said. “This isn’t the Big Ten West anymore. I can honestly say that with that schedule, it has brought about a lot of the changes that we’ve had. The great thing about that schedule is that it's pretty easy to lay it down right in front of everybody. Everybody knows what they signed up for, and everybody knows what they stuck around for. The beautiful thing is that we’ve been able to embrace that.”
And to his credit, Fickell hasn’t flinched. He’s acknowledged the team's flaws and even used them as a baseline for growth.