The Wisconsin Badgers are set to take on the No. 19 Alabama Crimson Tide on Saturday, with kickoff slated for 11:00 a.m. at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
Ahead of the game, the Badgers are seen as somewhat of an afterthought to win, being listed as 21.5-point underdogs, according to FanDuel Sportsbook.
When the two sides played a season ago, the Badgers were humiliated on their home field, losing 42-10 while losing starting quarterback Tyler Van Dyke to a torn ACL. Now, with the odds stacked against them,
Wisconsin is looking to pull off the upset on the road on Saturday when it travels to Tuscaloosa.
Ahead of the game, ESPN broke down the betting lines, noting Alabama as a 21.5-point favorite after it opened up as a 19.5-point favorite.
However, their Football Power Index (FPI) projects actually have the Badgers covering the game, predicting Alabama to win by 15.7 points and giving them an 89 percent probability to win the game outright.
According to ESPN, the Football Power Index (FPI) is a measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of a team’s performance going forward for the rest of the season. FPI represents how many points above or below average a team is. Projected results are based on 20,000 simulations of the rest of the season using FPI, results to date, and the remaining schedule. Ratings and projections update daily.
Wisconsin currently is 40th in FPI, and the model projects them to have between 5.6-6.4 wins this season, giving the team a 51.5 percent chance to win six games.
But, they aren’t favorable for the Badgers this weekend, as Alabama is expected to win by a considerable margin, just not by the 21.5-point spread according to FPI.
