After what will be three weeks of waiting, the Wisconsin Badgers are set to resume their season this weekend when they visit Jim Harbaugh and the 1-2 Michigan Wolverines.
Wisconsin started their season with a 45-7 statement victory against Lovie Smith and the Illinois Fighting Illini back on October 23. There was then a COVID-19 outbreak within the program and all football activities were put on hold.
Related:Â 3 things to watch for against Michigan this weekend
Going into the season ESPN FPI, SP+ and other predicting metrics liked the Badgers’ chances to reach the College Football Playoff. Part of their preseason love due to the easy schedule in front of the team, but much was also due to arguably-improved defense and consistency on offense.
We saw both of those traits play out against Illinois and much, much more, as redshirt freshman quarterback Graham Mertz threw for 248 yards and 5 touchdowns, the defense shut out Illinois and the team as a whole looked unstoppable.
That obviously won’t be the case every week, but many questions were answered during that Week 1 game that began to validate the preseason love the team was getting.
Now, heading into Week 4 of the Big Ten season sitting at 1-0, ESPN’s Allstate Playoff Predictor continues to give Paul Chryst’s team the fourth-highest chance to reach the playoff behind only Alabama, Ohio State and Clemson.
According to the Allstate Playoff Predictor, Alabama and Ohio State are the only schools with at least a 50 percent chance to reach the Playoff this season.
Overall, there are still eight teams with at least a 15 percent chance to reach the Playoff.
(đź“Ť @Allstate) pic.twitter.com/ypSdZGrsfq
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) November 9, 2020
Chryst and his team will need to play the remaining five games on their schedule in order to qualify for the conference championship, let alone the playoff.
But if the team is able to play and win every game and give Ohio State a run for their money in the Big Ten Championship, the Badgers-to-the-playoff argument will have a lot of steam.
Stay tuned to BadgersWire all week as we preview the upcoming contest against Michigan and evaluate what the team could look like when they take the field on Saturday.