Wisconsin-Notre Dame football series at Soldier Field and Lambeau Field appears imminent

CHICAGO – The idea of Wisconsin facing Notre Dame has intrigued Badgers fans, and several years ago school officials began looking at a potential matchup.

Nothing came to fruition, but Monday both UW head coach Paul Chryst at Big Ten media day and Packers President Mark Murphy at the shareholders meeting in Green Bay confirmed a Chicago Tribune report that discussions are again being held.

The series would be held at Lambeau Field and Soldier Field, and Murphy said he expects an announcement soon.

"We've been working on that for a while, and I would hope very soon we'd be able to announce something soon," Murphy told reporters in Green Bay. "Obviously a Notre Dame-Wisconsin game would be pretty special."

UW opened last season with a 16-14 victory over LSU at Lambeau Field.

"It was neat for our players playing in Lambeau,” Chryst said. “That was a good experience.

“I don’t know where all those (conversations) are at. I think it would be pretty cool.”

UW has three non-conference games set for 2018 (home games with Western Kentucky, New Mexico and BYU) and ’19 (at South Florida and home vs. Central Michigan and North Texas) but only one set for 2020 (home against Syracuse).

UW and Notre Dame have met 16 times, with the Irish holding an 8-6-2 lead. However, the last meeting came in 1964 in Madison, a 31-7 victory by the Irish. 

UW healthy entering camp: Several key UW players were held out of spring ball or limited because they were recovering from off-season surgery.

That group included: 

Linebackers Jack Cichy (pectoral), Chris Orr (knee) and Ryan Connelly (shoulder); offensive tackle Jacob Maxwell (shoulder); guard Jon Dietzen (ankle); and tailback Taiwan Deal (ankle).

Chryst confirmed Monday those players expect to be full-go when camp opens Saturday.

"They're good," he said. 

Cichy missed the final seven games after going down at Iowa but still finished tied for fourth on the team in tackles (60). He wasn't able to do any upper-body work in the weight room for several months but recently recorded a personal-best 345 pounds on the bench and noted Monday he is in the best overall shape of his life.

"I obviously took a little setback from the injury, but I feel like I’ve obviously progressed," Cichy said.

Orr suffered a torn ACL on UW’s first defensive play in the season opener. 

Edwards was held out of the opener after suffering a broken left foot in summer workouts. He led UW in tackles (89) but was held out of spring practice after undergoing surgery.

Connelly finished with 59 tackles, the No. 5 mark on the team. Maxwell started the first seven games at right tackle before being sidelined for the remainder of the season. 

Dietzen started eight games at left guard, including the final seven. 

Deal was limited to six games because of persistent ankle problems. He finished with only 164 yards but averaged 5.1 yards per carry.

FCS back in play: According to Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany, league teams will again be allowed to schedule games against Football Championship Subdivision teams in seasons with only four Big Ten home games.

“We had adopted a policy of no FCS (games) for a variety of reasons,” Delany said, “including to enhance television and to strengthen packages for season-ticket holders and also to enhance television product, and also to impress the college football playoff committee. So we had really four reasons.

“Now after watching things play out over the last three years, we noted that we were the only conference to go totally in that direction. ... When we went to nine (league) games, we did not anticipate the problems that some of our schools would have in years that they only had four conference games.

"It was very difficult for them to get three FBS opponents on to their schedules if they were looking for seven home games."