Wisconsin & Cal Football Setup Games We Will Need By 2029

© Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports

The California and Wisconsin football programs announced a home-and-home series for the 2029 and 2030 football seasons.

The Badgers will visit Cal Memorial Stadium on Sept. 1, 2029, and the Golden Bears will visit Camp Randall Stadium on Aug. 31, 2030. Cal's press release states that the Golden Bears lead the all-time series 5-1 with the last game being played in 1990. The Bears and Badgers have never met in a bowl game.

Wisconsin had open dates after UCLA's jump to the Big Ten Conference ended the two school's contract, according to the Associated Press. This contract will allow the Badgers to start the 2029 season in the state of California. The 2030 Camp Randall matchup will serve as one of the Bear's shortest away matchups as Madison, Wis., is a time-zone closer than any of Cal's Atlantic Coast Conference opponents.

Big Ten Rivalry

It is weird to type this in 2024, but the 2029 and 2030 series will allow for the remembrance, nostalgia, and regional rivalry we currently take for granted. The Rose Bowl being held as the champions of the Pac-12 Conference and the Big Ten became less common in the BCS and College Football Playoff eras but it was there.

We could rely on the Big Ten's 3 yards and a cloud of dust taking on the wide-open speed of the Pac-12. It was the laid-back West Coast versus the blue-collar Midwest.

The stereotypes of Berekely's hippies and weed-hazed ideology versus the thoughts of a blue-collar and casserole-stuffed midwest. The truth behind these portrayals didn't matter it was a conference on conference, time zone on timezone, "coastal elite" versus "flyover states."

Oregon getting after Ohio State in the Horseshoe is about to be just one conference game. This battle of Great Lakes vs Pacific beaches is done, the Ducks and Buckeyes play for a shot at a BIG TEN title. Conference realignment originally stole the annual Backyard Brawl of Pitt against West Virginia, Okie State, and Oklahoma just ended Bedlam, Texas A&M and Texas will finally return this year. Still, none of these (maybe Pitt and West Virginia) have the regional and expressed cultural divides carried by the rare regular season matchups of the PAC 12 and the BIG 10.

Wisconsin & Cal Football Move Forward

By 2029 the PAC 12 will be a distant memory and the matchups of Cal Football and the Wisconsin Badgers in century-old stadiums will provide reasons to recall past BIG 10 versus PAC 12 showcases. Pete Carroll and his squad of LA celebrities against Lloyd Carr's monotone press conferences will be something shaken awake the weeks leading into the matchups. The insanity of Cal being in an Atlantic-based conference will not be the point. Like The Big East in the Backyard Brawl or even this year's Rutgers and Miami Pinstripe Bowl the coverage will begin regarding the past affiliations and narratives they raise. In 2029 these out-of-conference games played on the San Andreas Fault and then to the shakes caused by "Jump Around" will stir memories we do not yet recognize we will need reason to recall.

These matchups and the memories in this Wisconsin and Cal Football contract hang in the balance of conference realignment. In today's NCAA a 2029 contract can fall apart as quickly as the PAC 12. Let us hope the guy who paints himself for Ohio State games is long forgotten.