The Badgers were led by sixth-year head coach Paul Chryst and competed as members of the West Division of the Big Ten Conference.

On August 11, 2020, the Big Ten Conference suspended all fall sports competitions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Badgers would have hosted two of its three non-conference games at Camp Randall; the first on September 12 against Southern Illinois from the Missouri Valley, then the next week on September 19, playing Appalachian State, a member of the Sun Belt Conference.

The last non-conference matchup on October 3 was a primetime game guaranteed to air on NBC against Notre Dame as part of the Fighting Irish's neutral-site Shamrock Series at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, with Notre Dame as the designated home team.

The Big Ten Conference canceled all non-conference games on July 9 due to the COVID-19 pandemic;[5] the day before, the November 7 away game at Northwestern was moved from the neutral site Wrigley Field in Chicago back to Ryan Field in Evanston.

[6] Both Notre Dame and Wisconsin plan to fulfill their contract and play the Lambeau Field game in a subsequent season.