College football 2018 preview: Predicting the first loss for every Top 25 team

After a perfect 12-0 regular season in 2017, Wisconsin came up six points shy of upsetting Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship Game. The Badgers (and Buckeyes) were left out of the 2018 College Football Playoff and watched from home like everyone else as two SEC teams played for the National Championship trophy.

Jonathan Taylor came up 13 yards shy of a 2,000 rushing yard season as a freshman and will anchor the offense again in 2018. Quarterback Alex Hornibrook and three of his top receivers are back too to balance the offense enough to keep opponents from stacking the box to stop Taylor. He’ll be running behind an otherworldly offensive line so they’ll probably still open holes for no matter how many defenders there are at the line.

Defensively, there’s more to resolve, especially in the secondary. The on-field leadership of senior linebackers T.J. Edwards and Ryan Connelly and safety D’Cota Dixon will go a long way to help the supporting cast of rising starters develop around them.

The biggest difference between 2017 and 2018 for the Badgers is likely their schedule. With games at Michigan and Penn State, their strength of schedule won’t keep them out of the playoff but it will give them at least one, if not two losses.

With Shea Patterson at quarterback and a top-five defense returning, 2018 Michigan will be Jim Harbaugh’s best team. They’ll send Wisconsin home from Ann Arbor with a first regular-season loss since 2016. Penn State might deliver the Badgers their second.

With two losses they’ll still most likely take the Western Division crown but depending on how many teams with one loss or less are standing in the playoff picture, two regular-season losses might keep them out again.