We all know that Wisconsin will play the Cougars of BYU next season, but Thursday the athletic department announced a home and home series between the Badgers and Cougars for the 2017 and 2018 series.
“I’m excited to play three games against BYU,” UW head coach Bret Bielema said in a statement released by the school. “As we continue to strengthen our non-conference schedule it’s great to have a team with the history of success that BYU has come to Camp Randall Stadium. It also provides an opportunity for our fans to travel to one of the great venues in college football, LaVell Edwards Stadium.”
BYU is one of the most successful programs in the country since the start of the Bret Bielema era at Wisconsin, earning the 10th best win percentage in college football over that span. Wisconsin is right behind them in 11th. Adding a full series of games with the Cougars helps to solidify Wisconsin's efforts to up the anty on the non-conference slate.
2017 is shaping up to be a heck of a year in terms of what Badger fans will see in the non-conference part of the year, facing both Virginia Tech and BYU as known opponents for that year.
Future known opponents for Wisconsin read like this: 2013 is UMass, Tennessee Tech, @ Arizona State, BYU. 2014 has known games @ Washington State and vs. Bowling Green. 2015 sees a return trip by the Cougars of Washington State. 2016 is @ Virginia Tech, We've already talked about 2017, and 2018 and 2019 see a series against Washington happen that we know about at this point.
Clearly the Badgers are looking at facing much stiffer competition in the future and that's a good thing in terms of competitiveness, national reach of the program and especially for the fans who will be paying good money and finally getting a return for that in terms of seeing quality opponents and better games hopefully.
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