Where do the Badgers stack up in the NCAA Tournament field?
Taking a look at the regional pairings and what a tournament run for Wisconsin might look like.
Wisconsin head coach Mike Hastings looks up at the scoreboard during a stoppage in the Kwik Trip Holiday Face-Off championship game against Western Michigan on Monday, December 29, 2025, at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. | Dave Kallmann / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images The Wisconsin Badgers are back in the NCAA Tournament after a one-year hiatus under head coach Mike Hastings, but for only the third time in the last 12 years, and are seeking their first win since the 2010 semifinal against RIT. Wisconsin enters as one of the last few at-large teams, one clear of UConn in the final spot.
The Badgers have been the epitome of a hot-and-cold team this year, ascending as the nation’s number two team before enduring a six-game losing streak, finishing the season with some highs and lows before a Big Ten Tournament opening-round loss to Ohio State. They went 7-7-2 against ranked teams during the regular season, with four of those losses kicking off that six-game skid. More importantly, Wisconsin went 3-1 against ranked teams in the last four games of the regular season when fighting for their postseason lives.
The home loss to the Buckeyes, while inconvenient, also seemed like an emotional letdown after performing well in so many high-stakes games. Hopefully, the rest did them some good, because it’s all high stakes for the Badgers from here on out. As for the draw, Wisconsin ships off to Boston—well, Worcester—for their regional semifinal against the champions from the ECAC, Dartmouth.
The region is headlined by the third top seed and a team the Badgers are intimately familiar with, Michigan State, which takes on UConn in their opener. Sharing Wisconsin’s side of the bracket in Sioux Falls is the second one seed, North Dakota, taking on Merrimack out of the Hockey East conference. Providence and Quinnipiac round out a region that doesn’t feature a common opponent for the Badgers, while all other regions have at least two.
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