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Biggest obstacles for Wisconsin Badgers to fire Luke Fickell, from buyout to recruiting

It's easy to assuming firing a head coach will solve everything, but the Wisconsin Badgers have some major obstacles ahead if they decide to move on from Luke Fickell.
Lorin Cox|
Sep 13, 2025; Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA; Wisconsin Badgers head coach Luke Fickell speaks to reporters after a game against the Alabama Crimson Tide at Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
Sep 13, 2025; Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA; Wisconsin Badgers head coach Luke Fickell speaks to reporters after a game against the Alabama Crimson Tide at Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium. | David Leong-Imagn Images

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Wisconsin Badgers

Wisconsin Badgers fans have the pitchforks and torches out for head coach Luke Fickell after a disastrous performance against Maryland in Week 4.

It's easy to call for a coach to be fired, but it's a lot harder of a decision for the athletic department, with plenty of cons to weigh against the pros.

It's natural to assume the grass will be greener on the other side of a coaching change, but Wisconsin has plenty of obstacles between them and a new face of the program.

Luke Fickell's buyout

The Badgers signed Fickell to a seven-year contract when they hired him in 2022, and they gave him a contract extension in 2024.

He has a lot of money still coming his way on the deal, and it would cost Wisconsin a pretty penny to terminate the contract.

If they fired Fickell after the 2025 season, the Badgers would have to pay him over $25 million to not work for them.

That would be one of the largest buyouts ever paid out in college football history.

If Wisconsin found the money to pay that out, it wouldn't leave much left to keep up with NIL and other expenses.

Lost recruits

The results on the field haven't reflected it, but Fickell has been an effective recruiter for Wisconsin.

He landed quality veterans in the transfer portal this offseason, and he has some quality high school players lined up for the future.

He secured commitments from a four-star quarterback and four-star running back for the 2026 class that both look like promising prospects.

Firing Fickell could jeopardize those recruitments and set back the Badgers pipeline of young talent.

Resetting the timeline

If Wisconsin fires Fickell, the new head coach would need a lot of patience as he looks to turn over the program.

Just as Fickell needed multiple years to recruit his own players into the program and graduate Paul Chryst's players, so too would the next guy.

Every player on both sides of the ball would be learning new systems, and the team might not be ready for success right away.

The Badgers knew that this season could be tough with a difficult schedule, and the slate of opponents lightens up next year.

Whatever progress they might have made under Fickell would be reset, and the clock for competing for championships would reset.

Does firing Fickell solve the problem?

Some Wisconsin fans are wondering whether the problems with the football program go above the head coach.

Athletic Director Chris McIntosh picked Fickell over inteirm-head coach Jim Leonhard and other potential candidates.

The question is whether he and the front office can make a better choice the next time around.

The next coach also would have fewer resources than Fickell, since the team would be paying the buyout.

All of these challenges and more could be worth it to the athletic department if they're confident that Fickell won't take the program in the right direction, but it is going to be a massive decision for the school in the near future.

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Lorin Cox
LORIN COX

Lorin Cox is the managing editor of Wisconsin Badgers on SI. He has been covering Badgers sports since 2014, when he was an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin. He previously wrote for the Wisconsin State Journal, NBC Sports Chicago and USA Today Sports Media Group, and he is a former analyst for Pro Football Focus.

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