Ranking Wisconsin football’s top 5 transfer portal needs for 2026
Wisconsin football has major roster holes to fill heading into 2026. Here’s a look at the Badgers’ top 5 transfer portal priorities this offseason.
The University of Wisconsin football program enters the offseason coming off a 4-8 finish. It was the program’s first back-to-back losing seasons since 1991–92, after a year that unexpectedly swung between frustration and late-season resolve. For all the ups and downs, the Badgers did manage to play some of their best football down the stretch despite a plethora of injuries that thinned the depth chart at every turn.
The “Fire Fickell” chants that echoed through Camp Randall in October felt like rock bottom, but against the odds, Wisconsin steadied itself enough to rewrite parts of the disappointing narrative. Athletic director Chris McIntosh publicly backed Luke Fickell for 2026, and top donor Ted Kellner made the media rounds with a clear message: the Badgers intend to climb from the bottom third of the Big Ten in spending into the top third, and, in his words, things will look “decidedly different” next season.
“Internally, you felt like, man, there are some things that are growing,” Fickell said. “You don’t always get a chance to see them on Saturdays, and sometimes the struggles outweigh the things you can visually see, especially on Saturdays. But when it’s all said and done, we’ve got to take a deep dive into the things that we need to be able to do.
“We’ve talked about some of the traditional things of how to continue to build a program and how to continue to build a team, and those are things we know we’re going to make adjustments and changes to. But we felt like we’re on a path that’s going to take us to the right place. There are a lot of things we still have to continue to adapt, adjust, and change.”
That sets up the biggest question of the offseason: Are the resources they’re promising actually built for the scale of the problem? We’re going to find out quickly once the transfer portal opens, because this roster has no shortage of needs on both sides of the ball, if we’re being honest.
Here’s how I would rank Wisconsin’s top 5 transfer portal needs for 2026.