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5 reasons Wisconsin makes the College Football Playoff

By Jeremy Morris

MADISON, WI - OCTOBER 14: Head coach Paul Chryst of the Wisconsin Badgers congratulates Jonathan Taylor #23 after Taylor scored a touchdown against the Purdue Boilermakers in the first quarter at Camp Randall Stadium on October 14, 2017 in Madison, Wisconsin. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
MADISON, WI - OCTOBER 14: Head coach Paul Chryst of the Wisconsin Badgers congratulates Jonathan Taylor #23 after Taylor scored a touchdown against the Purdue Boilermakers in the first quarter at Camp Randall Stadium on October 14, 2017 in Madison, Wisconsin. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images) /
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The Wisconsin Badgers came oh-so-close to making the College Football Playoff last year. The 2018 Badgers will have a lot of the same faces but they could end this season on a much different note.

After a perfect 12-0 regular season in 2017, Wisconsin came up a drive short of winning the Big Ten Championship. Their one loss, by six points to Ohio State, was enough, in the eyes of the College Football Playoff selection committee, to leave them out of the four-team playoff.

The Badgers beat Miami in the Orange Bowl to close out the seasons, which only further solidified their thoughts that they were good enough and belonged in the four-team playoff. Now in 2018, they return almost everyone on offense and several players on defense. Their schedule this season looks like more of a challenge, but also like one that the selection committee can’t just discount.

With the added motivation of being left out in 2017 fueling everything they’ve done in the offseason, the 2018 Wisconsin team has a clear goal for the season — make the 2019 College Football Playoff.

These are the five biggest reasons that goal is a realistic one and the Badgers are ready to deliver and surpass what they did in 2017.

MIAMI GARDENS, FL – DECEMBER 30: Head coach Paul Chryst of the Wisconsin Badgers celebrates after winning the 2017 Capital One Orange Bowl against the Miami Hurricanes at Hard Rock Stadium on December 30, 2017 in Miami Gardens, Florida. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
MIAMI GARDENS, FL – DECEMBER 30: Head coach Paul Chryst of the Wisconsin Badgers celebrates after winning the 2017 Capital One Orange Bowl against the Miami Hurricanes at Hard Rock Stadium on December 30, 2017 in Miami Gardens, Florida. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images) /

5. The Schedule

The only two ranked teams Wisconsin beat last season were No. 20 Michigan and No. 25 Iowa. They beat every team on their schedule during the regular season but it wasn’t enough. The 2018 schedule drops Maryland and Indiana and adds a road game at Penn State and sends the Badgers on the road against a much-improved Michigan team. Those two games alone give Wisconsin not only an upgrade in strength of schedule, but an opportunity for two signature wins compared to the 2017 schedule that offered zero.

Both are going to be tough games, especially on the road. Penn State plays at Michigan the weekend before Wisconsin comes to Happy Valley. The Badgers have a home game against Rutgers so even though they’ll be on the road for Penn State, they have a significant advantage since the Nittany Lions come off a game that’s going to take a lot, emotionally and physically.

Wisconsin will be the best team in the Big Ten West and favorites to represent the division in the Big Ten title game. Michigan, Penn State, Michigan State and Ohio State are all contenders for the East. The fact that they all play one another means that whoever wins the East, they’ll be coming off of a brutal late-season conference schedule. With four teams involved, there’s a decent chance that a tangled combination of tiebreakers sends the second or third best team to play Wisconsin.

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