The Wisconsin Badgers are still a few weeks away from the start of the regular season, but it’s never too early to start looking into Bracketology for the 2025-26 campaign.
Wisconsin opened the year as
the No. 24 team in the preseason AP Poll, ranking sixth among Big Ten teams behind Purdue, Michigan, Illinois, UCLA, and Michigan State.
Well, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi put out his preseason bracketology, and the Badgers earned a No. 6 seed in his early rankings.
In the projected bracket, Wisconsin faces No. 11-seeded Memphis in the West Region. Looking at the other Big Ten teams, Purdue is projected as a No. 1 seed, Michigan is projected as a No. 2 seed, UCLA is projected as a No. 3 seed, Illinois is projected as a No. 4 seed, and Michigan State is also projected as a No. 6 seed.
Then come the Badgers, who are followed by Oregon (No. 7 seed), Ohio State (No. 7 seed), USC (No. 9 seed), Iowa (No. 10 seed), and Washington (No. 11 seed). Additionally, Indiana and Maryland are the top teams in the First Four Out.
In Lunardi’s preseason bracket, the Big Ten and SEC are tied with 11 teams in the bracket, leading the way. Then, it’s the Big 12 with eight teams, followed by the ACC (five teams) and the Big East (five teams).
When sharing my Big Ten predictions, I was more bullish on the Badgers, ranking them as the No. 3 team in the conference behind only Purdue and Michigan. Behind them, I had UCLA, with Illinois at No. 5.
We’ll see how things play out, but Wisconsin does have a couple of challenges in its non-conference schedule, which should give an early insight into how this team looks.