Bill Connelly released his 2026 returning production rankings, and Wisconsin falls into the bottom half of the Big Ten.
And until these teams take the field in late August, we have no way of assessing how accurate those barometers are. Connelly just released the 2026 iteration of his oft-referenced statistic, and there's plenty to dive into.
. The Big Ten has a staggering eight teams inside the top 20 in terms of returning production percentage. Wisconsin, meanwhile, checks in at 10th in the Big Ten and 35th nationally.Now, there's a few things to keep in mind about returning production. The algorithm is purely a representation of returning production; it doesn't account for if that production is necessarily good. . Connelly explains it all in his article, but certain stats are weighed differently, with percentage of returning snaps as the biggest factor. Thus, this list shouldn't be used to determine which teams will be good and which teams will be bad next fall. Obviously, no one thinks Maryland — coming off a 4-8 season — is going to run to Big Ten. Still, the Terps check in as the team that returns the second-most production in the nation.Wisconsin plays four of the top-15 teams in returning production Wisconsin will play some of the teams with the most returning production in 2026, including UCLA. | Kirby Lee-Imagn ImagesWisconsin will play Maryland, Minnesota, UCLA and USC, all of whom rank in the top-15 in terms of overall returning production. The Bruins also sport the fifth-most returning production on offense, while the Terps return the fourth-most defensive production in the nation.35th overall in the nation is solid, but Wisconsin is 10th in the Big Ten, placing the Badgers into the lower half of the conference. Again, this metric doesn't correlate directly to wins and losses. But it's an early indication that Wisconsin needs new faces to step up, especially on defense, where it returns just the 56th-most production nationally. Of course, new players being counted on isn't exactly a bad thing, especially after a rock-bottom 4-8 season in 2025. This team needed a makeover, and so it would be rather alarming if Wisconsin ranked among the top of the list nationally.This is true for the entire sport, as programs increasingly rely on the transfer portal to fill holes and place less emphasis on high school recruiting and development. Wisconsin is a good example of this trend, as the Badgers continue to flip more and more of their roster year after year. Ahead of the 2025 season, Wisconsin checked in at 25th nationally, bringing back 64 percent of its production. Flash forward one year, and the Badgers are down to 35th . Again, major changes needed to be made after the disaster of the 2025 season. But as college football changes rapidly, the Badgers have hopped on the trend of increased roster turnover.Badgers ON SI lead editor Seamus Rohrer hails from Brooklyn, NY and is a University of Wisconsin J-School grad. He's covered the Badgers since 2020 for outlets including BadgerBlitz, The Daily Cardinal and BadgerNotes.
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