Over the past few weeks, the Wisconsin Badgers have hovered just outside the top five in the AVCA poll, and they enjoyed another win over the weekend, beating the Iowa Hawkeyes in four sets behind a strong performance from Jaela Auguste.
As a result of the two wins last week, the Badgers remained at No. 6 in the latest AVCA Top 25 released on Monday. However, in the first in-season ranking by the NCAA selection committee, they were seen as a projected No. 1 seed.
Revealing their current top 16, the committee
ranked the Badgers at No. 4 behind the Nebraska Cornhuskers, Pitt Panthers, and Kentucky Wildcats.
Most notably, they’re ahead of Florida (No. 5) and Louisville (No. 7). The Gators are No. 5 in the AVCA polls this week, while Louisville is No. 3. In between the two in the selection committee’s rankings is SMU at No. 6. The Mustangs came in at No. 7 in the AVCA polls.
Wisconsin loaded up their schedule with a ton of tough competition this season. They’ve played Kentucky (No. 3), Louisville (No. 7), Stanford (not seeded), Pitt (No. 2), Florida (No. 5), and Texas (No. 12) in non-conference games. Then, in the Big Ten, they’ve played Nebraska (No. 1), Oregon (No. 1o), and Purdue (No. 16), while UCLA (No. 13), Penn State (No. 14), and Washington (No. 15) are still to come.
From the early seeding, it looks like the selection committee is rewarding the tougher scheduling for the Badgers, who are 13-5 and 7-1 in the Big Ten. Wisconsin does have some impressive wins on its resume, having beaten Louisville (sweep), Florida (3-2), Oregon (3-1), and Purdue (sweep). Their losses have been to Pitt, Stanford, Texas, Kentucky, and Nebraska, with Stanford being the only team not in the top 12 of that group.
The Badgers seem to be in control of their destiny going into the final month of the regular season, and those head-to-head wins over Florida and Louisville could end up being a big factor for their seeding.
