Loser: Wisconsin Badgers
Over the past few years, the current Big Ten West has been dominated by the Wisconsin Badgers. Year after year, Paul Chryst has had his teams playing at a high level and in the conference championship games. However, when you look at the 2018 recruiting class for the Badgers following National Signing Day, you have to imagine that they are going to take a step back in the future barring some more diamonds in the rough surfacing.
The Badgers finished the 2018 recruiting period with just the No. 44 ranked class in the overall rankings, which is where the trouble starts. Looking at how the class shook out, though, it’s not hard to imagine why they barely cracked the top 50.
Wisconsin didn’t land a single 5-star recruit. And while those top-end high school players are limited, it gets worse for the Badgers the deeper that you look. Because while they didn’t land a 5-star player, they also landed just one 4-star recruit out of the 20 players that they signed. That’s where things get quite troubling for Chryst’s program moving forward with this recruiting class.
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Though the rest of the 19 recruits that Wisconsin signed were all 3-star players, that doesn’t bode well for the Badgers moving forward. They have to be the final loser coming out of National Signing Day given this. This is a program that could have a strangle-hold on the West for the foreseeable future. And while other teams in the division were unable to get massive hauls, this looks like a step in the wrong direction in Madison.