How they voted: Badgers in 2015 AP football poll (Preseason)

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 12:38 p.m. ET

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Dave Heller

The college football season is almost upon us, so of course that means we need a preseason top 25, right?

This past Sunday, the Associated Press unveiled its initial ranking and had Wisconsin coming in at No. 20, but the Badgers were just one point behind No. 19 Oklahoma (394 to 393).

Of course, Wisconsin opens against No. 3 Alabama, so the chances are the Badgers will be moving in the first official poll of the regular season.

But this poll did get me to wondering: Do voters cast their ballot for how they think the team is now or where the team will finish?

As you will see below, Wisconsin got two very high votes in this poll, ranked No. 10 by Scott Wolf and No. 11 by Marc Weiszer.

Full disclosure: I've known Marc for many years -- well, we've only met a couple of times, but we've been in the same fantasy baseball league for decades. So I reached out to him to get his reasoning on why he had Wisconsin so high, at least compared to his cohorts. His answer, via email:

"Wisconsin has had double digit wins in three of the last five years, including under two different coaches that have gone elsewhere. So Paul Chryst isn't taking over a lower-tier Big Ten program. The Badgers aren't at the level of Ohio State or Michigan State, but after the opener against Alabama, it isn't a world-beater schedule. A key will be how much of a drop-off there is from Melvin Gordon to Corey Clement."

So Weiszer cast his preseason vote on how he thinks Wisconsin will end up, which makes sense with his reasoning above. It will be interesting to track his vote as the season progresses. As well as everyone else's. Which is why I do this thing.

Here's the full list of ballots from the AP's preseason top 25:

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