Wisconsin Badgers AD boldly announces Luke Fickell's 2026 fate

The Wisconsin football head coach has not led the Wisconsin Badgers to a victory against a conference opponent in over a year

Wisconsin s new head football coach Luke Fickell, left is shown with athletic director Chris McIntosh at a welcome event November 28, 2022 at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison. He was previously head coach for six seasons at Cincinnati. | Mark Hoffman / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK

As rumors around the future of Wisconsin Badgers football head coach Luke Fickell continued to swirl, the University of Wisconsin Director of Athletics definitively put those to bed on Thursday. In a series of public interviews, McIntosh announced Fickell's fate for the 2026 season.

In interviews with outlets including ESPN and Badger Connect, McIntosh said Fickell will return as the head coach of the University of Wisconsin football team in 2026.

"Coach Fickell has had my confidence throughout the season, and we've had many, many conversations about how this season, and some of the challenges that we've faced have gone," McIntosh told Badger Connect.

That confidence throughout the season has been given not just behind closed doors to the head coach, who has yet to win a game over a ranked opponent during his time with the Badgers, but has also been given publicly. After Wisconsin lost to the Maryland Terrapins for the first time in program history, McIntosh assembled a group of reporters to express his support of Fickell. One month later, McIntosh released a letter, recognziging that the season had "fallen well short" of UW's standards, but that he and Fickell see "the potential in what this team can be."

Related: NIL funding is no excuse for Wisconsin Badgers football struggles under Luke Fickell

Wisconsin mega-booster Ted Kellner, late last month, also expressed his support of the head coach that has not led the Badgers to a win in Big Ten play since October 19th, 2024.

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