It’s officially game week for the Wisconsin Badgers, who take on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish this weekend at Lambeau Field in primetime to kick off the 2026 season.
The Badgers are hoping to put 2025 in the rear window and start off 2026 with a bang, but that will come against arguably their hardest opponent on the schedule: Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish are the No. 4 team in the country and return quarterback C.J. Carr, who is a Heisman contender and a potential first-round pick in the 2027 NFL
Draft.
Wisconsin will have a lot of new faces on the field this weekend, as they’ll likely be starting a new quarterback, running back, wide receiver, tight end, offensive linemen, defensive linemen, cornerback, and safety. That’s a lot of changes, not to mention special teams, where Gavin Lahm and Sean West are the new kicker and punter.
Currently, odds are more bullish on the Badgers this season, with FanDuel Sportsbook believing they’re favored to win more than 6.5 games this season. Unfortunately, that just might not start in Week 1.
Wisconsin is a 20.5-point underdog, with the over/under at 47.5 points. They’re an outright +1000 play on the moneyline. Right now, 34 percent of the money is on Wisconsin to cover the hefty spread, meaning a majority of bettors believe that the Badgers will lose by more than 20.5 points.
Things do get easier in Weeks 2 and 3, when Wisconsin hosts Western Illinois and Eastern Michigan. But they’ll have to get through Notre Dame first and are still dealing with a couple of injuries as well. This could be a tough one for the Badgers.
