The University of Wisconsin football team had a hole to fill in their 2018 schedule, with one non-conference game still needed to complete a 12-game regular season schedule.
To fill that hole, athletic director Barry Alvarez took an unconventional route. UW agreed to a three-game deal with Western Kentucky, with only one of the games involving football.
The Badgers will play the Hilltoppers at Camp Randall to open their 2018 season. They will also go up against them twice in men’s basketball, with one game at the Kohl Center in 2017 and one at Bowling Green, Kentucky in 2018.
According to Alvarez, this isn’t anything new in college athletics, but for him, this route is one he hasn’t taken yet.
“You have to be creative in what you’re doing with scheduling – to fill your schedule and match the open dates with someone else,” Alvarez told UWBadgers.com. “Sometimes you have to do these things to make it all work.”
Western Kentucky is coming off as 12-2 season in 2015-16, which is the program’s first 12-win season since 2002-03. The Hilltoppers recorded a perfect 8-0 record in Conference USA and defeated Southern Mississippi by 17 points in the conference championship game. They then went on to defeat the University of Southern Florida in the Miami Beach Bowl, topping off one of the best season’s in the program’s history.
Additionally, the school’s basketball program has continued to be one of the better mid-major programs college basketball has to offer. They won at least 18 games in each of the previous three seasons and have 42 conference titles in their history.
Wisconsin’s 2018 football schedule can be seen below in its entirety.
