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Wisconsin Badgers face uphill battle in Phil Steele's preseason Big Ten football rankings

Phil Steele's annual College Football Preview magazine ranked the Wisconsin Badgers low in the Big Ten entering this season, thanks to a down 2024 performance and an even tougher 2025 schedule.
Lorin Cox|
Oct 19, 2024; Evanston, Illinois, USA; Wisconsin Badgers head coach Luke Fickell on the sidelines against the Northwestern Wildcats during the first half at Lanny and Sharon Martin Stadium.
Oct 19, 2024; Evanston, Illinois, USA; Wisconsin Badgers head coach Luke Fickell on the sidelines against the Northwestern Wildcats during the first half at Lanny and Sharon Martin Stadium. | David Banks-Imagn Images

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Wisconsin Badgers

The surest sign that the college football season is right around the corner is when Phil Steele's annual College Football Preview magazine comes out.

The annual tradition sets preseason expectations for the upcoming year using a variety of power ranking methods based on last year's results, strength of schedule and his own plus/minus ratings.

The results for 2025 are not encouraging for the Wisconsin Badgers, who rank 13th in the 18-team Big Ten conference.

The only five teams lower than UW in the ranking are UCLA, Michigan State, Maryland, Northwestern, and Purdue.

It's at least encouraging that the Badgers are ahead of the two conference opponents who finished with the same record as them last year (UCLA and Michigan State), but it's not giving Wisconsin much benefit of the doubt for their troubles last season.

Steele's ranking has them just a fraction of a point behind Rutgers at 12 and very close to Minnesota at 11. It leaves a much larger gulf after the Top 4 of Ohio State, Penn State, Oregon and Michigan.

This is becoming a more frequent spot for Wisconsin outside of the Top 10 in various Big Ten rankings heading into 2025.

It's not surprising after a 5-7 finish last year with an even more daunting schedule on the docket. The Badgers will be doubted all throughout this process and need to lean into the underdog mentality to start surprising everyone this season.

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Lorin Cox
LORIN COX

Lorin Cox is the managing editor of Wisconsin Badgers on SI. He has been covering Badgers sports since 2014, when he was an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin. He previously wrote for the Wisconsin State Journal, NBC Sports Chicago and USA Today Sports Media Group, and he is a former analyst for Pro Football Focus.

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