When Iowa football fans glanced at the 2026 schedule in the summer, one of the games that they chalked up as likely wins was a Halloween contest against rival Wisconsin. 

And it made perfect sense back then. The Badger program was seemingly going nowhere under head coach Luke Fickell, and many people believed 2026 would be Fickell's final season before the school would cut ties with him. 

But flash-forward to Halloween, and Iowa and Wisconsin enter this matchup in completely different directions. The Hawkeyes are desperate for a bounce-back win after an ugly loss at Minnesota last weekend, while the Badgers could vault themselves into College Football Playoff contention with a victory (just check their schedule after the Iowa game). 

Every Iowa-Wisconsin game always seems to provide something unusual, so one can only imagine what will happen on Saturday. Here's my prediction for the matchup. 

Matchup: No. 25 Wisconsin Badgers (5-2, 3-1) @ Iowa Hawkeyes (5-2, 2-2) 

Location: Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, Iowa 

Scheduled game time: Oct. 31 at 11:10 a.m. 

Weather: 63 degrees 

TV: FOX 

Announcers: Gus Johnson (play-by-play), Joel Klatt (analyst), Jenny Taft (sideline) 

Radio: Hawkeye Radio Network (Gary Dolphin, Pat Angerer) 

Student Radio: KRUI (Collin Carrithers, Luke Jorden) 

I'm very surprised that Wisconsin is a competitive team at this point, but Iowa Everywhere's Chris Hassel said it best on Wednesday - the Badgers know their identity by now and the Hawkeyes don't. Iowa essentially using a roulette wheel to determine its starting quarterback each week has clearly caused this offense to be inconsistent week in and week out. Though Wisconsin hasn't received great quarterback play from Old Dominion transfer Colton Joseph, it has relied on a good run game and excellent defense to win football games. 

Sticking to that strategy has worked well for the Badgers. All you have to do to figure that out is go back and watch their last game against USC. Wisconsin dominated both lines of scrimmage en route to a 24-7 victory last weekend and you better believe they'll try and do the same thing to Iowa. 

But can the Badgers actually come to Kinnick Stadium and pull this one out? The momentum is definitely on Wisconsin's side of the ball, but if there's one edge Iowa has, it's the fact that it's playing at Kinnick Stadium. The Badgers haven't won in Iowa City since 2018, with the Hawkeyes winning the last three games in Kinnick by a combined score of 94-27. 

I don't expect a lot of points to be scored in this one (stay tuned for my betting prediction later today), but if there's one thing I know about Kirk Ferentz, it's his ability to win these Big Ten grinders. He's going to try and flip the calendar back to 2023 and win this game with complimentary football. That wouldn't be a good strategy on the road, but I think this defense will feed off the home crowd and give their offense enough short fields to secure a narrow victory. 

The Hawkeyes take down Wisconsin for the sixth time in seven games. 

Prediction: Iowa 16, Wisconsin 13