Wisconsin Badgers

Are the Badgers a top-5 team? Two AP voters think so

Published Sep. 5, 2017 5:03 p.m. ET

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The Wisconsin Badgers remained at No. 9 in this week's Associated Press top-25 poll.

Snore.



But wait. The Badgers gained 53 votes from the original preseason poll. Nineteen of the voters have Wisconsin ranked higher than No. 9, including Kirk Bohls and Jon Wilner who both have the Badgers at No. 3.

Yes, they think Wisconsin is the third-best team in the country (both have Alabama at No. 1 and a Big Ten team at No. 2 -- Wilner has Ohio State and Bohls Penn State).

No one else has the Badgers in the top five, but three voters do have UW at No. 6 and four at No. 7.

All isn't that rosy, of course, as usual.

There will always be some correction in these early weeks. Sam McKewon dropped the Badgers from 3 to 8, David Briggs from 9 to 11, David Southern from 11 to 13 and Chuck Carlton from 11 to 19. Four voters think Wisconsin is no better than No. 15, including two voters who had the Badgers ranked higher than that in the last poll (Matt Brown 14 and Michael Lev 15).

But it is still early and Utah State wasn't exactly the most impressive opening opponent. Wisconsin did struggle in the first quarter against the Aggies, although the 59 points scored by the Badgers was tied for third-most vs. any FBS team last week.

With Florida Atlantic on the horizon this week followed by a BYU team that didn't exactly impress against FCS Portland State and couldn't cross midfield -- at all -- in getting shut out by LSU, it might be a while before Wisconsin can impress voters.

Here's how this week's ballots looked compared to the preseason ballots:

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