Wisconsin is learning the same lesson Texas Tech and Virginia did last offseason: It’s smarter to invest what would be buyout money into the roster. Luke Fickell’s $25 million buyout is far too hefty for Wisconsin to pull together and honestly wouldn’t make much sense, given the state of that program. According to ESPN, the Badgers have committed to Fickell for at least the start of the 2026 season.
Take into account that this is going to be a wild hiring cycle. The Badgers are better off rolling with Fickell rather than battling for scraps after the big coaching names land with the bigger schools seeking new coaches. After all, investing in the roster is far more valuable than continuing the cycle of hiring and firing coaches that simply don’t succeed.
Whether you like the state of Wisconsin football under Fickell or not, you have to give credit to the Badgers for making a home run hire at the time, plucking Fickell from Cincinnati on the heels of Cincinnati’s historic College Football Playoff appearance. Wisconsin doubling down on Fickell isn’t foolish, it’s a last ditch effort to bring out the coach they always wanted him to be.
Reallocating buyout money to re-invest in the roster might be a new normal in college football
If Wisconsin truly does significantly improve the financial budget to better the football roster this offseason and it actually works, it would start a new trend for college football programs and how they navigate coaches on the hot seat with abnormally large buyouts. Of course, this is a different situation than Penn State or Florida, which seemingly have bulletproof NIL funds.
But there’s a reason why programs are hesitant to fork up tens of millions of dollars to pay a coach to not be on the sidelines. It’s a waste of money and a poor business decision. I think it will be a trend teams turn to when they’re at an impasse and truly clueless on how to handle a struggling coach without paying for it in the long run.
We’ve seen LSU trigger the second-largest buyout in college football and you have to think they really didn’t want to and will probably regret it. Wisconsin didn’t want to make that same mistake, especially for a coach that has a track record of turning a bottom feeder program into a championship contender.
Fickell was a great hire at the time and though he hasn't had a season as good as his first, the Badgers don’t really gain anything from firing him now, especially if they have one last solution to salvage the Fickell hire. This wasn’t an ignorant decision, but it doesn’t guarantee it will work either.
Wisconsin building the best roster money can buy should mean better results
Money may not buy happiness, but it could buy you more time with your team if it’s used right. Virginia football coach Tony Elliott was middling with the Cavaliers football program ahead of the 2025 season. Now the Cavaliers are technically the best team in the ACC and ranked No. 15 in the first College Football Playoff rankings. Joey McGuire and Texas Tech were in the same situation entering this season and now the Red Raiders are the No. 8 team in the country and a favorite to win the Big 12.
It’s no surprise that both of those programs injected a whole lot of money into their NIL funds with Texas Tech topping out at $28 million. Virginia’s total hasn’t been reported, but it’s fair to say some investment was made in the roster for them to go from one of the worst in the ACC to the best.
That’s what Wisconsin is banking on and honestly, it just might work. If it doesn't, well, they’ll have to figure out what to do next. If Fickell can’t succeed with a better roster than maybe he’s not the coach they need and if that’s the case, they’ll need to decide when to pull the plug before he runs them into a hole that will feel impossible to get out of.