Luke Fickell speaks to the importance of Wisconsin fans to team's success in 2026

The last two seasons of Wisconsin football have been extremely discouraging, as the Badgers have missed the postseason in back-to-back years for the first time since 1991-92. Head coach Luke Fickell, however, is returning for his fourth season in charge.

Fickell, who led Cincinnati to the College Football Playoff in 2021, was brought in by Wisconsin to elevate the Badgers to the top of the Big Ten Conference. This has not gone to plan, however, making the 2026 season make-or-break for the Columbus native.

During a press conference on Wednesday, Fickell continued to instill confidence in fans to show out to games this season. Across his three seasons at the helm, Wisconsin is just 11-10 at Camp Randall Stadium.

“College football is what it is, right? It is the experience,” Fickell said. “There’s an advantage to playing at home, but you’ve got to make it your advantage. There’s a role I joked that Deputy Athletic Director/Chief Revenue Officer Mitchell (Pinta) was up here selling tickets and I said ‘Well, that’s not my role.’ Well, yeah, it is. Our role is to put a damn good product out there, win football games and make everyone want to come. It will make (Pinta’s) job a lot easier by doing that.

“And so, hopefully, there’s a history here. There’s an incredible amount of support that has always been there. I said it after the Washington game… yes, it’s a 10-7 victory, but nine of those points might have been attributed to the environment we created that day. So, there’s nothing better in college football than the environments in which you play in. Whether it’s home field advantage, meaning it’s tough to play here, but it’s also energizing for the guys in our progra,m too.”

Wisconsin brass instilled confidence in Luke Fickell down the stretch of the season

Near the end of Wisconsin‘s disappointing 4-8 campaign last season (its most losses in a season since 1990), Athletic Director Chris McIntosh told ESPN’s Pete Thamel that the Badgers were making a “significant” financial investment in the program. That was made in addition to retaining Fickell.

“Chancellor (Jennifer) Mnookin and I are aligned on significantly elevating investment in our program to compete at the 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.

“Our intention is to be, in terms of our investment, on par with those that we intend to compete with. Our expectations are to compete at the highest level in the Big Ten and beyond.”

The 2026 season will be make-or-break for Luke Fickell and his Wisconsin program. Although it will face Notre Dame in its season opener, the Badgers will avoid playing conference foes such as Indiana, Ohio State, Oregon, Michigan, and Illinois.