With game under belt, Badgers get on every AP voter ballot

Hey, the Wisconsin Badgers finally played a game in the 2020 season! And won handily!

The Badgers, which got to No. 14 in the Associated Press top-25 poll while idle, moved up to No. 9 following their 45-7 victory over Illinois.

Moving up was no surprise — after all, seven voters had not put Wisconsin on their ballot since Big Ten teams started receiving votes in Week 4.

The win also helped recalibrate Wisconsin’s place on other ballots, as most voters moved the Badgers up compared to their Week 7 placement. For example, The Athletic’s Matt Brown moved Wisconsin from 16 to 7, the Gainesville Sun’s Pat Dooley from 24 to 10 and Jerry DiPaola of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review from 19 to 10.

Of course, there had to be one voter who had Wisconsin ranked lower – Robert Cessna of the Bryan-College Station Eagle had UW at 15 after having the Badgers at 14 in Week 7 (he pushed both Michigan and BYU ahead of Wisconsin this week, while Penn State dropped out).

Anyway, as mentioned, seven voters did not rank the Badgers at all since Big Ten teams returned to the ballot. After seeing Wisconsin play, here’s where those seven placed the Badgers on their Week 8 ballot:

Brett McMurphy, Stadium Network: 9
Brian Howell, Daily Camera: 11
Brooks Kubena, The Advocate: 11
Kirk Bohls, Austin American-Statesman: 12
Rob Long, WJFK-FM Washington, D.C.: 12
Jon Wilner, San Jose Mercury News: 13
Ryan Aber, The Oklahoman: 13
Tom Green, Alabama Media Group: 20

No one had Wisconsin ranked lower than Green … in fact, he’s the only voter to have the Badgers outside the top 15.

Here’s all the votes from Week 8 with Week 7 included for comparison’s sake: