The Wisconsin football program is known for turning middle-of-the-pack recruiting results into consistent 10-win seasons and Big Ten Championship appearances.
While it hasn’t gotten over the hump and won the conference since 2012, the program has been the model of consistency across the college football landscape.
Earlier Friday, The Athletic’s Max Olson looked across the college football landscape and analyzed which programs have outperformed and which have underperformed on the field based on their recruiting rankings.
Who are college football's biggest overachievers and underachievers?
A look at 4-year performance vs. recruiting: https://t.co/YFHpbjSsYT pic.twitter.com/iM1RwctTPr
— Max Olson (@max_olson) July 9, 2021
As seen above, Wisconsin is unsurprisingly No. 3 in Olson’s study, trailing only the Iowa Hawkeyes and Iowa State Cyclones. Specifically, Wisconsin’s on-field rank of No. 11 over the last few years is a whole 29 spots ahead of their recruiting ranking of No. 40.
The top 10 on both sides is littered with Big Ten teams. Iowa, Wisconsin, Northwestern and Indiana are in the top 10 of overachievers. Rutgers, Maryland and Nebraska are in the top 10 of underachievers.
Nobody should be surprised by these results. If anything, they should shine more light on the years to come as Wisconsin has put together some pretty dang impressive years on the recruiting trail.
We now just have to wait a few months to see it happen on the football field.
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