Following the massive win over the USC Trojans a week ago, the Wisconsin football team was riding high. Sitting at 5-2, the best record the team has had in what feels like forever, the Badgers looked like a program on the rise, hurdling towards relevance again. Even the national media recognized the Badgers' success this season, putting them in the AP Top 25 for the first time since Week 2 of the 2023 season.

The Badgers snuck into the rankings last week after their win over USC, landing at No. 25 before their big matchup with the Iowa Hawkeyes, who have owned the series lately, winning the last four matchups, and handily, I might add. This was Luke Fickell's chance to prove that this team is truly on the rise again.

Then, just when you start to believe again and think we might be seeing a resurgence in Wisconsin football, they get blown out by a bitter rival—again.

The Week 9 AP Poll has been released, and, as expected, the Badgers tumbled out of the rankings again, with no evidence they'd ever been there.

After the embarrassing defeat, the Badgers did not even appear in the 'received votes' category of the voting results.

Can the Badgers find their way back into the rankings?

It took the Badgers a few weeks of receiving votes over the past few weeks before finally breaking into the rankings. Getting blown out immediately after entering the rankings won't do you any favors in the future.

They do, however, have a favorable schedule if they are going to sneak back into the rankings before the end of the regular season.

Next week, Wisconsin will host Rutgers (2-6) in a favorable matchup for them to get back into the win column. The Scarlet Knights haven't been very competitive for most of the season but are coming off a game where they gave Michigan all they could handle, losing 28-21.

After that, back-to-back trips to Maryland (2-6) and Purdue (3-5) are on deck. The Terrapins recently fired Mike Locksley, whose last conference win came last season against the Badgers at Camp Randall. Purdue is more competitive than their record suggests. The Boilermakers have wins over Illinois and Minnesota this season but are losers of three straight games.

Finally, the Badgers will host Minnesota to close out the season. After suffering a 41-13 loss to the aforementioned Boilermakers, Minnesota defeated Iowa a week ago and took No. 4 Indiana to overtime in Bloomington.

I think if the Badgers win the next three games convincingly, as they should, they'll be 8-3 overall and 6-2 in the Big Ten. I would think that would be enough to crack the top 25 before their matchup with Minnesota.