Fi-re Fick-ell. Clap, clap, clap clap clap.
The chants were already raining down at Camp Randall during the Wisconsin Badgers football team’s 27-10 loss to Maryland all the way back on Sept. 20.
The calls have become louder and more insistent since, especially after the 37-0 dismantling the Iowa Hawkeyes committed in UW’s Homecoming game this past Saturday. My colleague in local journalism, freelance contributor Nicholas Garton, made a strong case in a column on this very site: Luke Fickell has had three years to turn around a flailing program; he hasn’t yet; it’s time to move on.
If only it were so simple.
Yes, when Athletic Director Chris McInstosh brought Luke Fickell in from Cincinatti three years ago, there was considerable fanfare. Lots of optimism. This successful head coach would surely be the one to bring back the Rose Bowl champion glory of the Alvarez Era, and maybe even get the Badgers to the promised land of the College Football Playoff.
And yes, he has failed to do that.
But hear me out. No one in his position could have done that, because of three little letters:
N. I. L.
A football program lives and dies by the talent on the field. Which is exactly why I support any way for players to get proper compensation. It makes no sense that the young men who put their bodies on the line for a mult-billion-dollar industry get nothing but free college classes.
That said, the implementation of name, image and likeness deals has completely upended the college athlete recruitment process, to the detriment of schools like Wisconsin.
Gone are the days of a coach sitting in a high school junior’s living room, talking sincerely with his mom and dad about the virtues of the Badger way. At least, those days are gone when it comes to the cream of the crop talent that can turn a program around.
These days, to paraphrase an over-quoted movie, recruiters have to show them the money.
And gone are the days when the top talent will commit to four years at a school. The transfer portal allows players to follow the money now, without waiting for the NFL draft. And to some extent, the brand of the school is as important as the brand of the player when it comes to inking the most lucrative deals.
In fact, currently, none of the 100 most valuable NIL deals involves a Badger. Which makes sense. If signing on with Wisconsin can get you a $100,000 deal but Alabama gets you a million, where are you going to play?
As a result, a school like Wisconsin, which has a solid program but not exactly flashy brand cachet, will struggle to attract the top talent, and struggle to keep the talent it develops.
McIntosh himself acknowledged this fundamental shift in testimony before the United States Congress in March.
“I think the combination of third-party NIL and permissibility of unlimited transfers has put our coaches in a really tough position and it’s created roster instability, which I think is not fair to teammates on those teams,” he told a hearing on antitrust law and the NCAA.
New NCAA policies that are too complex to get into here will, if they work as designed, level the playing field. But even that will take a few years to have an impact; it’s current high school freshman and sophomores who will enter the recruiting phase as the NCAA figures out the finer points of fairness in NIL and athlete compensation.
So, while Nick’s column acknowledges that it takes time for a college football program to turn the corner, I’d argue that three years may have been enough in a bygone era; it’s not at the moment.
Yes, one would like to see Fickell adjust his game plan to the personnel he has.
However, calling for his head on a platter will not do any good until the NIL landscape evens out, which will take another three or four years, regardless of who’s got the headset on the sidelines.
The best thing McIntosh and the UW Athletic Department can do right now is to stay the course – keep advocating for a better and more equitable compensation system, and stick with coaches like Fickell and men’s basketball coach Greg Gard.
Finally, let me say this:
Chill.
If you’re apoplectic about a college football game, you are letting a few dozen young men in their early 20s dictate far too much of your mood.
And, frankly, Barry Alvarez was right: we are spoiled as Badger fans.
Some of us remember those very lean years in the 1980s and early 90s, before the Rose Bowls, before the Heismans. A few tough years will just make us more appreciative next time we crack the top 25.
In the meantime, our women’s hockey team is ranked number one (again); our women’s volleyball team is pretty great; the men’s basketball team is ranked #24 in the preseason poll; our women’s soccer team is unranked but can’t stop winning (just beat #9 UCLA) and look poised to crash the NCAA tournament again.
If the football team is making your blood boil, turn it off, enjoy some more successful sports, and stop hoping for people to lose their jobs.
