You might be surprised where Wisconsin football is on ESPN’s early 2024 SP+ rankings

Today marks an important day on the college football calendar, or at least it should. It is the annual release of Bill Connelly’s pre-spring SP+ rankings — arguably the best forward-looking rating system in college football.

His ratings merge returning production from the previous year, recent recruiting and transfer portal performance, and each program’s recent history to create the most accurate forecast for the upcoming year. More than the AP Poll just basing much of the voting off last year’s results, Connelly’s numbers actually consider the factors that decide success.

Related: Way-too-early record predictions for every Big Ten football team in 2024 

Wisconsin enters the spring period after an interesting offseason. In comes the nation’s No. 18-ranked transfer class led by former Miami quarterback Tyler Van Dyke, but out went several of Luke Fickell’s top assistant coaches.

The Badgers need a rebound in 2024 after a 7-6 2023 campaign. A glass-half-full approach would look at turnover and call it a good thing given last year’s results, while the glass-half-empty view would point out that turnover is often a bad thing in college football.

Either way, Wisconsin isn’t entering 2024 ranked inside the nation’s top 10, instead more of a borderline top-25 team.

That’s where Connelly’s pre-spring SP+ ranking has the Badgers, obviously with room to rise or fall depending on performance on the field.

Remember, Connelly always adds this disclaimer when it comes to the rankings:

A reminder on SP+: It’s a tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency. It is a predictive measure of the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football, not a résumé ranking, and, along those same lines, these projections aren’t intended to be a guess at what the AP Top 25 will look like at the…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/espn-releases-pre-spring-top-150038803.html

Author : Badgers Wire

Publish date : 2024-02-14 15:00:38

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