Wisconsin head coach Luke Fickell will return to coach the Badgers in 2026, athletic director Chris McIntosh told ESPN on Thursday.
With Wisconsin 2-6 overall and winless in Big Ten play, McIntosh is informing the Wisconsin team on Thursday that Fickell will return as head coach next year. The return will come with changes, which include increased investment in the roster and program, along with an ongoing analysis of every facet of the program.
“Chancellor (Jennifer) Mnookin and I are aligned on significantly elevating investment in our program to compete at highest level,” McIntosh told ESPN. “We are willing to make an investment in infrastructure and staff. As important, is our ability to retain and recruit players in a revenue share and NIL era.”
In three seasons at Wisconsin, Fickell has gone 15-19. Along with supporting Fickell, McIntosh pledges to support the program more financially to return the Badgers to contention in the Big Ten.
“If Wisconsin is going to be as competitive as we expect, the support has to be as competitive,” McIntosh said. “There’s no getting around it. Our people, our fans are passionate about Wisconsin football. I’d have it no other way. A successful football program is important to university, the state and our lettermen.”
Fickell’s deal runs through the 2031 season. If he were to have been fired this year, he’d have been owed more than $25 million. (The one-year extension in the off-season did not impact the size of Fickell’s buyout.)
“This season has caused us all to have to look from within,” McIntosh said. “Luke has had to do that. I’ve had to do that. He has a willingness to be better. So do I, and so does Wisconsin from an institutional perspective.”
There’s optimism at Wisconsin that with college football settling into the revenue share and NIL era, the school will be better positioned because of the school’s traditional success in attracting corporate partnerships. Those can translate to NIL deals, in addition to the revenue share available to all schools.
“Our intention is to be, in terms of our investment, on par with those that we intend to compete with,” McIntosh said. “Our expectations are to compete at the highest level in the Big Ten and beyond.”
Wisconsin has lost six straight games. The Badgers host No. 23 Washington on Saturday afternoon and finish the year at No. 2 Indiana, home against Illinois and at Minnesota. The 37-0 loss to Iowa at home earlier in the year marked the program’s first home shutout since 1980.
Fickell’s tenure – and this season in particular — has been hallmarked by major injuries at the quarterback position. This season’s starting quarterback, Billy Edwards, got injured early in the season opener and hasn’t contributed significantly since.
Overall, the quarterback health can be summed up by Fickell’s team having the intended first-string quarterback play the entire game in just 11 of 34 games. The Badgers have endured consistent injury issues this year, including being down eight projected starters at Oregon.
That’s left Wisconsin this season playing back-up Danny O’Neil and third-stringer Hunter Simmons, and the Badgers have the No. 17 passing offense in the 18-team Big Ten (only Iowa is worse.) That’s gone up against a schedule with four teams ranked in the Top 10 and seven of the Top 25 in the initial College Football Playoff standings.
McIntosh said the same traits that made Fickell a celebrated hire remain.
“He has the vision and fire to do it,” McIntosh said. “The same things that made Luke Fickell a unanimously great hire in 2022 remain. He’s a winner, program builder and developer of talent and he understands the Big Ten.”
Fickell won an average of 10.6 games per season in his final five years at Cincinnati. That included leading the Bearcats to the four-team College Football Playoff in 2021, the first team from outside a power conference to lead a team to the College Football Playoff.
Fickell also brought extensive Big Ten experience, as he’d spent 15 years coaching at Ohio State. That included a stint as interim coach in 2011 and his work as co-defensive coordinator on Ohio State’s 2014 national title team.
He’ll get a chance to re-set the trajectory at Wisconsin in 2026.
“We all acknowledge this is short of expectations,” McIntosh said. “We have identified the ways in which we need to be successful, and we have a plan to be successful. We are executing that plan.”
