Upcoming Wisconsin Badgers Football dates
Dates and live ticket listings appear here as soon as they are on sale. The guide below covers what to know before you buy.
Where to point your money at Camp Randall
The strongest seat for Wisconsin Badgers Football is a lower-bowl sideline seat between the 30-yard lines, row 15 or higher, ideally on the west side. Camp Randall Stadium, the 75,822-seat open-air bowl on the UW–Madison campus, puts you close to the hitting from those middle rows while lifting you above the bench area that blocks the lowest seats.
- Best view: middle rows on either sideline near midfield.
- Best for afternoon comfort: the west side, under or below the upper deck.
- Best value: the end zones, where the running game comes straight at you.
- Best for noise: next to the students in the north end.
- Best for a calm day with kids: the sidelines or the south end.
The home season fills fall Saturdays from the season opener to just before Thanksgiving, and Big Ten television contracts set a number of the kickoffs at night.
Lower bowl, west upper deck and the south end premium seats
No Big Ten stadium is older, and the seating chart shows each stage of its growth. The original 1917 concrete seats are in the lower east grandstand. In 1958 the track came out and close to 11,000 seats went in. The west upper deck followed in 1966, and the 2002–2004 project added suites along the east rim. Then in 2022 premium seats replaced the south end zone bleachers, and capacity fell by about 4,500, from 80,321 to today's 75,822.
Lower sideline
Close enough to hear the line of scrimmage. Skip the very front rows, which sit low behind the benches; from row 15 up, the whole field opens.
West upper deck
A high, wide overview, and the structure that shades the rows below it in an afternoon game.
End zones
Cheaper than the sidelines and good for goal-line plays and power running. Plays at the far end look small.
South end premium
The newest seats in the stadium, from the 2022 project, for buyers who want premium amenities over a sideline angle.
Afternoon sun and November cold in Madison
Because the gridiron is laid out on a north–south axis, the late-day sun sits over the southwest corner. In general that puts the sun in the faces of east-side fans as the game goes on and behind west-side fans, whose upper deck also throws shade on the seats under it. In September, that is worth paying for.
November flips the problem. After dark late in the season, Madison gets seriously cold, and layers matter more than which sideline you picked. A heated field was installed after the 2023 season for those games; the stands are another matter.
The north end: students, Gate 5 and Jump Around
Students fill the north end zone, coming in through Gate 5 by Breese Terrace, according to Wisconsin Athletics. No part of Camp Randall is louder, and it is ground zero for Jump Around.
When the third quarter ends, the House of Pain track starts and 75,000-plus people leap in time. Students in sections O and P started it on their own in 1993; the athletics department adopted it for the 1998 Homecoming game with Purdue. In 2003, while suites were being built, it was dropped, and the student backlash lasted until an engineering review cleared the structure and the song came back.
- Sit near the north end if you want to be in the middle of it.
- Sit on a sideline or in the south end if you have small children or prefer to watch it rather than join it.
Either way, expect almost everyone around you to be on their feet for it.
Axe, bull and Freedom Trophy weekends
Demand at Camp Randall follows the opponent, the kickoff slot and what is at stake. The games that go fastest:
- Minnesota: no rivalry in major college football has been played more, and it has been annual since 1907. Paul Bunyan's Axe, in use since 1948, carries each final score on its handle, and the game is often the regular-season finale.
- Iowa: the neighbors first met in 1894. Since 2004 they have played for the Heartland Trophy, a bronze bull mounted on walnut.
- Nebraska: the Freedom Trophy series began in 2014. Badgers fans still talk about the 70–31 rout in the 2012 conference championship game.
- The Big Ten heavyweights: visits from the Buckeyes, Wolverines or Nittany Lions bring national TV and plenty of road fans. When Wisconsin knocked off top-ranked Ohio State at home on October 16, 2010, students poured onto the field.
- The West Coast arrivals: Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington entered the league in 2024, and a trip to Madison by any of them is still a rarity.
Homecoming and anything under the lights draws extra buyers. If you just want to see the place, a September non-conference date is the low-cost choice.
How Badgers tickets reach the public
Season holders own most of the stadium, and, as across the Big Ten, the prime sideline spots are tied to how much and how long people have given. The north end goes to students through their own university allotment. Single-game buyers get the leftovers, which are generous in September and scarce when a rival or a ranked team comes in at night.
That leaves resale as the main door to the big games. Season holders who can't make it put their seats up, so the amount listed rises and falls with the matchup, the standings and the weather outlook. Minnesota, Iowa and the big-name conference games get expensive early and stay that way. A frigid game late in November against a struggling opponent is the exception, when holding off until the final days can save money. Reserved Seat backs every order with a 100% guarantee.
Wallet tickets, UW-600 bags and the Bucky Shuttle
For the 2025 season, Badgers tickets lived in your phone's Apple or Google wallet, a screenshot would not scan, and metal detectors came right after the ticket check. Get the tickets onto your phone at home.
Carry-in rules come from a university policy numbered UW-600. Its text permits one transparent tote no bigger than 12 by 6 by 12 inches, a clear gallon bag, or a small bag of any color around 4.5 by 6.5 inches, plus medical and diaper bags once screened. Leave backpacks, purses, fanny packs and camera bags behind, because the stadium has nowhere to check them. Read the UW-600 carry-in policy before you go.
For 2025, the athletics department announced that Monroe Street would shut five hours ahead of kickoff and that the Bucky Shuttle park-and-ride would serve lots 60, 64 and 76. These arrangements shift from year to year, so review the Know Before You Go page ahead of the trip.
After the final whistle, stay for the Fifth Quarter, the marching band's postgame concert, born in 1969 when the team was losing week after week. Thousands of fans stay another 20 minutes or longer to hear On, Wisconsin, You've Said It All and Varsity, the alma mater, and by the time you leave the streets have cleared.
From a 106–0 debut to three straight Big Ten titles
The stadium's name comes from a Civil War training camp on the same ground, itself named for Governor Alexander Randall. Football started at Wisconsin in 1889; the first victory came a year later, 106–0 over Whitewater Normal, and no Badgers win has been more lopsided since. A founding Big Ten member, Wisconsin took the league's first crown in 1896, won again in 1897, 1901, 1906 and 1912, and then went four decades without another. Its all-time win total has passed 700, a mark few programs have reached.
- 1942: the Badgers beat top-ranked Ohio State in Madison, and the Helms Athletic Foundation named them national champions, a title Wisconsin itself does not count.
- The 1950s: defenses nicknamed the Hard Rocks carried Wisconsin to Pasadena twice (the 1952 and 1959 seasons), and in the 1962 season's Rose Bowl the Badgers fell 42–37 to No. 1 USC.
- Two Heisman winners: fullback Alan Ameche in 1954 and tailback Ron Dayne in 1999, who left school holding the NCAA career rushing record. Look up at the upper deck for their retired numbers, 35 and 33.
- The Alvarez rebuild: Barry Alvarez took over in 1990 promising to go From Red Ink to Roses, then delivered Rose Bowl wins following the 1993, 1998 and 1999 seasons.
- Since then: huge offensive lines and a ground game that let Montee Ball, Melvin Gordon and Jonathan Taylor each rewrite the record book; three straight Big Ten titles from 2010 to 2012; Gordon's 408 yards against Nebraska in 2014; a 2016 upset of fifth-ranked LSU played at Lambeau Field; and 13 wins in 14 games in 2017, finished off in the Orange Bowl. The program's bowl streak is one of the longest in the country.
Frequently asked questions
Which Camp Randall rows are best on the sideline?
Row 15 and up in the lower bowl between the 30-yard lines. The front rows sit low behind the bench area, where standing players block part of the field.
Which side of Camp Randall is better for a sunny afternoon?
Usually the west. Late-day sun hangs to the southwest of the north–south field, so it lands behind west-side fans, and the west upper deck adds shade beneath it.
When does Jump Around happen?
Right after the third quarter. The crowd jumps to the House of Pain song, a ritual the school adopted at the 1998 Homecoming game.
Can you use a screenshot of a Badgers ticket?
No. As of the 2025 season, the ticket has to be in your phone's Apple or Google wallet; screenshots do not work.
What is the Bucky Shuttle?
It is the game-day park-and-ride. In 2025 it ran from three lots, numbered 60, 64 and 76.
What trophy goes to the winner of Wisconsin vs. Iowa?
The Heartland Trophy, a bronze bull on walnut that dates to 2004. Minnesota games are played for Paul Bunyan's Axe and Nebraska games for the Freedom Trophy.