Rumor: The Wisconsin Badgers could play at Lambeau Field in 2024

Apparently, the Northwestern Wildcats are thinking of playing a “home game” in Green Bay this season.

According to Louie Vaccher of WildcatReport, Rivals’ dedicated site covering the Northwestern Wildcats, Northwestern athletics director Derrick Gragg told a group of alumni at a New York City get together last week that his school’s football team will be playing a game at Lambeau Field in 2024. Notably, the Wildcats’ Ryan Field is undergoing an $800 million renovation, which is going to lead to some creative hosting for Northwestern’s home games this season.

Per Vaccher, the most likely matchup for Northwestern’s “home” game at Lambeau Field is the Wisconsin Badgers, who the Wildcats will play on October 19th. If you think that’s too farfetched of an opponent, Vaccher noted that Northwestern once played a “home” game against Ohio State in Cleveland back in the 1990s.

So if you’re a Badgers fan in northeast Wisconsin looking for a short trip to watch your program, this could be your chance in 2024. Almost certainly, the Green Bay Packers will be playing a road game that weekend, as a one-day turnaround from hosting a college game to hosting an NFL game seems like a stretch.

The Badgers previously played at Lambeau Field in 2016, when they faced off against the LSU Tigers. Lambeau Field is also scheduled to host the Badgers in 2026 as part of Notre Dame’s Shamrock Series. At the moment, that 2016 Wisconsin-LSU game is the lone Division I football game to have ever been played in the stadium.

As a reminder, the Packers’ road opponents this year are the Los Angeles Rams, Seattle Seahawks, Philadelphia Eagles, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans and their usual NFC North divisional rivals. Keep that in mind for the weekend of October 19th, as Green Bay probably won’t be playing a home game that Sunday. The Eagles road game remains an important one to circle, as it has already been announced that Philadelphia will open the NFL season as the host team at Arena Corinthians in São Paulo, Brazil — the league’s first game in South America. Yes, there is a chance that the Packers could open the season in Brazil on a Friday night, if you can believe that.