By: Aaron Morse 11/24/25
It is common knowledge that in the college football world a .500 record of 6-6 is the requirement to play in a bowl game. Wisconsin, thanks to a six game losing streak, will not reach a 6-6 record this season as they are 4-7 with just one game to go.
HOWEVER, there are loopholes for five-win teams to get into a bowl game.
If you exclude the College Football Playoff, there are 35 bowl games. That means 82 teams will be needed to fill out the available slots (70 for traditional bowls and 12 for the CFP). The loopholes begin with years where there are not 82 teams to reach a 6-6 record. When that happens, they dip into the five-win teams to fill slots. Other slots open because programs reject an invitation to the bowl they get picked for. Again, five-win teams fill those slots if there aren’t any leftover six-win teams.
Note: The five-win teams are chosen using a metric called Academic Progress Rate.
SOOOOOO, the Badgers have a chance to go bowling if they can reclaim the axe in Minnesota on Saturday. Now they need some help. It may seem like a lot of help… and it is. But, most of that help should come easy. There will be some sweating though for a handful of games. Excluding themselves, there are 17 teams that will have some sort of say on if the Badgers will be invited to a bowl game.
Again, it sounds like a lot… and it is. But of those 17 teams, only six of those teams are favored according to ESPN BET. AND, Wisconsin can afford for three of those teams to win their games. AND, that’s IF every bowl eligible teams decides to accept their bowl game invite.
Here is the list of teams and the betting lines for their games so that you can keep an eye on the Badgers chances:
Mississippi State (+7.5) vs. #6 Ole Miss
Kansas (+11.5) vs. #12 Utah
Buffalo (+7.5) vs. Ohio
Temple (+20.5) @ North Texas
North Carolina (+7.5) @ North Carolina State
Army (+7.5) @ UTSA
Auburn (+6.5) vs. #10 Alabama
Kentucky (+3.5) @ Louisville
Florida State (+1.5) @ Florida
UCF (+17.5) @ #11 BYU
Rice (+27.5) @ South Florida
Delaware (-4.5) vs. UTEP
**Delaware is not bowl eligible as they are in the first year as an FBS school, but they get preference if 82 teams aren’t win eligible
Baylor (-2.5) vs. Houston
**Houston will drop from rankings but were #23 last week, so they are a good team
Kansas State (-16.5) vs. Colorado
**Might be out of luck here…
Washington State (-13.5) vs. Oregon State
**Weird Pac-12 quirk has these teams playing twice… Oregon State won 10-7 just three weeks ago
Louisiana (-9.5) vs. UL Monroe
**Louisiana on a three-game win streak by a combined 16 points (would have been nice for them to lose one of those)
Texas State (-9.5) vs. South Alabama
**South Alabama is 4-7 but won 3 of the last 4… including win last week over Sun Belt West division leaders Southern Miss
Listen, I know it’s unlikely. They need three of the six favorited teams to be upset AND none of the underdogs to get an upset. But, it’s still possible. And as much as you might think it’s “embarrassing” or “a joke” to get in through a “loophole” it would be super important for the growth and development of the program to be able to practice for another two weeks (or more) and play another game for a team that is looking more and more like a capable team.
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