Wisconsin among winningest college football programs without national championship

The Wisconsin football program has been the model of consistent success over the last few decades.

The program has qualified for 22 consecutive bowl games, the third-longest active streak behind only Georgia and Oklahoma. It has experienced only two losing seasons (2001, 1995) since Barry Alvarez’s initial breakthrough in 1993.

Wisconsin has achieved that consistent success with a few peak seasons including a 12-1 mark in 2006, 11-2 in 2010, 11-3 in 2011 and 13-1 in 2017. But none of those breakthrough years have included a College Football Playoff appearance.

The Badgers have been either good or really-good in nearly every season over the last 30 years. The program has not, however, had a truly ‘great’ season. It has been unable to reach national title contention.

That leads us into a look at the context surrounding Wisconsin’s steady success but lack of top-end breakthrough. The Badgers are toward the top of the list of FBS programs with the most all-time wins without a claimed national championship (all win numbers via Wikipedia):