Is it the Year of the Badgers in College Hockey? Wisconsin Riding High in Polls

According to the Chinese zodiac, 2025 has been known as a Year of the Snake, which combined with the element of wood basically translates to thoughtful transformation. Granted, they probably didn't have college hockey in mind when developing the cycle of 12 animals used in conjunction with the lunar calendar thousands of years ago, but considering the NCAA making players from the Canadian juniors eligible that description may be spot on.

Might Year of the Badgers be at hand? It's supposed to be the year of the Fire Horse, emphasizing strength and strong desire, beginning on Feb. 17, 2026. Wearing red is thought to be especially important to ward off bad luck.

Wisconsin (12-2-2, 8-2 Big Ten) has been riding high since sweeping then-Michigan State in East Lansing on Nov. 21-22, and crushed Notre Dame last weekend 7-4 and 9-2. Consequently, when this week's major polls were released on Monday, the Badgers didn't move up from No. 2 but essentially eliminated the gap with No. 1 Michigan, which split a home-and-home series with rival No. 3 Michigan State.

Specifically, Michigan had 26 first-place votes to Wisconsin's 21 in the USCHO.com poll, and the gap was even smaller in the USA Hockey Poll, 17-16.

Meanwhile, the women's team was back being a unanimous selection after sweeping a weekend series at No. 2 Ohio State.

The men's team was expected to be be good this season, but not this good. It was preseason No. 19 in the USCHO.com rankings, and picked to place fifth in the brutal Big Ten this season.

But the same was true of Michigan. The Wolverines were preseason No. 12, and projected to finish fourth in the conference. They took over the No. 1 spot a couple of weeks ago, and don't play again until January, so there may not be any more movement atop the polls for a bit.

The same is true of the Big Ten standings, where Wisconsin has a slight edge in points, 22-20. Of course, we still could end up with the projected frontrunners finishing on top as Michigan State was No. 1 for a good part of the fall, Penn State is better than its recent 2-4 stretch, and Minnesota is showing signs of improvement.

But the Badgers will head into their winter break having established themselves as a team to beat, and still riding that nine-goal game against the Fighting Irish. It was the most by Wisconsin since a 11-5 victory at Merrimack on Oct. 12, 2019, and their highest conference total since a 9-1 win at Colorado College during WCHA action on Jan. 14, 2006.

As for the women's team, they recent enjoyed a 17-goal game against Stonehill in the Smashville Women's Collegiate Hockey Showcase in Nashville over Thanksgiving weekend. Thanks to the 2-1 and 6-1 wins at Ohio State, UW has a commanding five-point lead in the WCHA standings.

The women's team won't play again until visiting Minnesota Duluth on Jan. 9. The men's team will play in the Kwik Trip Holiday Face-Off in Milwaukee, where it's open against Lake Superior State on the 28th, and then get the winner of Boston College and reigning national champion Western Michigan.

USCHO Men's Poll

December 8, 2025

Rank	Team	Record	Points (1st)	Prv.
1	Michigan	16-4	974 (26)	1
2	Wisconsin	12-2-2	949 (21)	2
3	Michigan State	12-4	906 (2)	3
4	North Dakota	12-4	804	5
5	Minnesota Duluth	13-5	795	4
6	Denver	11-5-1	764	6
7	Western Michigan	10-6	684	7
8	Dartmouth	10-0	657 (1)	10
9	Penn State	11-5-0	593	9
10	Quinnipiac	12-4-2	539	8
11	Northeastern	10-5	431	12
12	Connecticut	9-9-3	409	14
13	Boston College	10-5-1	405	15
14	Minnesota State	11-3-4	334	13
15	Maine	8-7-1	261	11
16	Providence	7-6-2	238	16
17	Cornell	7-4-0	215	17
18	Harvard	7-3-1	148	NR
19	Colorado College	8-7-1	95	20
20	Boston University	8-8-1	73	18

Others receiving votes: Union 65, Massachusetts 42, Miami 37, Holy Cross 23, New Hampshire 20, Augustana 11, Arizona State 10, Bemidji State 6, RIT 5, St. Cloud State 4, Princeton 2, Michigan Tech 1

USA Hockey Poll

December 1, 2025

Rank	Team	Points (1st)	Prv.
1	Michigan	663 (17)	1
2	Wisconsin	651 (16)	2
3	Michigan State	606	3
4	Minnesota Duluth	534	4
5	Denver	531	5
6	North Dakota	523	6
7	Dartmouth	474 (1)	10
8	Western Michigan	444	7
9	Penn State	402	9
10	Quinnipiac	376	8
11	Northeastern	299	11
12	Boston College	298	14
13	Connecticut	286	15
14	Minnesota State	230	163
15	Cornell	158	16
16	Harvard	155	20
17	Providence	153	17
18	Maine	148	12
19	Colorado College	45	NR
20	Boston University	37	18

Others receiving votes: Massachusetts, 25; New Hampshire, 25; Union 19; Augustana 17; Holy Cross, 14; Arizona State 10; Miami 10; Bemidji State 3; Princeton, 3; Rochester Institute of Technology 1.

USCHO Women's Poll

December 8, 2025

Rank	Team	Record	Points (1st)	Prv.
1	Wisconsin	18-1-1	230 (20)	1
2	Ohio State	15-3	279 (5)	2
3	Minnesota	14-4	258	3
4	Penn State	17-1	237	4
5	Minnesota Duluth	12-6	217	6
6	Connecticut	13-3-2	186	7
7	Northeastern	15-4	185	8
8	Quinnipiac	14-5-1	151	5
9	Princeton	11-4	139	9
10	Cornell	10-5-1	119	10
11	Clarkson	11-6-2	101	13
12	Minnesota State	11-8-1	76	15
13	St. Cloud State	7-12-1	66	14
14	Colgate	9-10-1	36	12
15	Yale	9-7	20	NR

Others receiving votes: oly Cross 12, Brown 9, Boston College 4, Mercyhurst 4, New Hampshire 1

USA Hockey Women's Poll

December 2, 2025 (Will be updated with new rankings Tuesday

Rank	Team	Points (1st)	Prv.
1	Wisconsin	278 (12)	1
2	Ohio State	273 (7)	2
3	Minnesota	237	3
4	Penn State	228	4
5	Minnesota Duluth	204	5
6	Northeastern	181	7
7	Connecticut	169	8
8	Cornell	163	6
9	Quinnipiac	141	9
10	Clarkson	100	10
11	Princeton	81	13
12	Minnesota State	64	15
13	Brown	38	11
14	St. Cloud State	35	14
15	Colgate	32	12

Others receiving votes: Yale 19, Boston College 13, St. Thomas 11, Mercyhurst 10, Holy Cross 3.