Note: Due to COVID-19, the Big Ten suspended the season on August 11, but later decided to begin play on October 24. In addition to the title game that was played on December 19, the conference seeded all remaining teams for "championship week" games.[1]
On August 11, 2020, the Big Ten Conference cancelled all fall sports competitions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The conference expressed the possibility that a season could be played in the spring of 2021.[2]
Previous season
The 2019 team started the year nineteenth in the pre-season AP Poll.[3] The team finished with two regular season losses, and were invited to the Rose Bowl for the first time since 2012 to play Oregon. The Badgers lost the game and finished the year at 10–4.
The Badgers 2020 schedule originally consisted of six home games, four away games, and two neutral site games. The Badgers would have hosted two of its three non-conference games at Camp Randall; the first on September 12 against Southern Illinois from the Missouri Valley, then the next week on September 19, playing Appalachian State, a member of the Sun Belt Conference. The last non-conference matchup on October 3 was a primetime game guaranteed to air on NBC against Notre Dame as part of the Fighting Irish's neutral-site Shamrock Series at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, with Notre Dame as the designated home team.
The Big Ten Conference cancelled all non-conference games on July 9 due to the COVID-19 pandemic[4]; the day before, the November 7 away game at Northwestern was moved from the neutral site Wrigley Field in Chicago back to Ryan Field in Evanston.[5] Both Notre Dame and Wisconsin plan to fulfill their contract and play the Lambeau Field game in a subsequent season.[6]