Wisconsin Badgers Football Has Worst 2025 Schedule in Big Ten But Luke Fickell Finds Beauty on it Being Announced Early

Pundits think they won’t be able to improve that much from their 5-7 finish last season.

College football analyst Joel Klatt did not hold back on his take.

“I don’t know if they win three games,” Klatt warned.

“As much as I really like Luke Fickell and think he’s an excellent coach, and I could even make a strong argument that Wisconsin could be a better team this year, it’s not going to show up in the win-loss column.”

Among their prominent opponents are Illinois, Ohio State, and Maryland.

Luke Fickell says schedule still got him born-ready players

The schedule for the 2025 season was confirmed early and Fickell finds solace on the fact that they can plan ahead because of it. This includes getting players who know what they signed up for.

“This isn’t the NFL where they lay out the schedule sometime in April. Everybody knows what they signed up for, and everybody knows what they stuck around for,” he told reporters on Wednesday.

“And the beautiful thing about that is, we’ve been able to embrace that. We’ve been able to say, ‘Hey, this isn’t going to be an elephant in the room.’ We understand what being a part of the Big Ten and being a part of this conference is.”

Fickell also highlighted how it is an opportunity to rise to the occasion.

“In order to be at the top and to be the best, you’ve got to compete, and you’ve got to beat the best,” he shared.

“And so it gives us a challenge but an unbelievable opportunity in front of us as well.”