Earlier today Wisconsin announced that the 2020 opener against Indiana would be a night game at Camp Randall. The 2020 season will kickoff on a Friday night which will be the first Friday night game for the Badgers since they opened the 2018 season at home versus Western Kentucky. 

Students can rejoice and enjoy a night game after a 2019 season that included zero night games at home. Three of the seven home games in 2019 kicked off at 11 central time and the other three kicked off at 2:30 with a weird three o’clock game against Purdue. The 2019 home slate came a year after the Badgers hosted two night games and played in four night games overall. Now students can take all the time in the world to tailgate throughout the day and afternoon which might lead to a packed student section prior to the second quarter. 

The students and fans, in general, should also enjoy the incredible atmosphere that is Camp Randall at night. As the Wisconsin Twitter account put it: “Camp Randall just hits different at night.” 

The biggest loser in the announcement seems to be Wisconsin high school football. When you think of high school football what usually comes to mind is Friday night lights and classic high school but now Wisconsin football will directly be competing with that.

Looking ahead to the matchup with Indiana, this will be the first time the Badgers open against a Big Ten team since 1982, but UW will do so again in 2021 when they open the season at home against Penn State. 

The last time the Hoosiers and the Badgers met was back in 2017 with UW easily winning 45-17 on the way to a 12-0 regular season. Wisconsin has won the last ten meetings, a streak that began back in 2005. The last time IU beat UW was in 2002 and the last they beat them in Camp Randall was in 2001, but they are coming off of an eight win season which ties their best mark since 1993 where they also won eight games. UW leads the all-time series 41-18-2

Last matchup: 2017 45-17 UW at Indiana 

Wisconsin has won last ten matchups going back to 2005… last IU win was in 2002 

All-time: 41-18-2