Wisconsin football added a home game against Illinois State to its 2029 football schedule. The Redbirds program first announced the matchup on Friday.
The game, scheduled for Sept. 8, will be Wisconsin’s second of the 2029 season. The team is set to open that campaign with a road trip to Cal.
The Redbirds went 10-4 in 2024, falling to UC Davis in the second round of the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs. After consecutive losing seasons in 2020 and 2021, the team delivered a pair of 6-5 campaigns in 2022 and 2023. Much will still change before Sept. 8, 2029, but the program is currently far from the class of the FCS.
Wisconsin and Illinois State have met once before: Sept. 3, 2022, in Madison, Wisconsin. The Badgers won that season-opening meeting 38-0. The result preceded one of the more significant month-long stretches of results in program history, as the team went on to lose at home to Washington State the following week, handle New Mexico State, get blown out at Ohio State and then fall at home to Illinois. That 1-3 start prompted athletic director Chris McIntosh to fire head coach Paul Chryst.
A lot has changed since those moments. Wisconsin is just 12-13 in two years under head coach Luke Fickell, plus missed a bowl game in 2024 for the first time since 2001.
Before the 2029 season is considered, Wisconsin’s schedule should dominate headlines throughout the upcoming 2025 campaign. The team faces national title contenders Alabama, Ohio State and Oregon, and strong Big Ten opponents Michigan, Washington, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois and Indiana. It will need dramatic improvements on both sides of the football to return to postseason play.
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