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Luke Fickell leaves out Georgia, Vanderbilt in puzzling final Coaches Poll vote

Danby: Daniel Hager01/22/26DanielHagerOn3

The 2025-26 College Football season came to a close Monday night as No. 1 Indiana held off No. 10 Miami 27-21 in the National Championship Game, bringing a third consecutive national title back to the Big Ten Conference. With the dust cleared, the individual ballots for the final Coaches Poll were revealed on Wednesday.

While many of the ballots looked normal, one ballot in particular stood out for some of its inclusions. Wisconsin head coach Luke Fickell excluded both 12-2 Georgia (finished at No. 6 in AP Poll) and 10-3 Vanderbilt (finished at No. 15 in AP Poll) from his poll, opting to instead include 9-4 Arizona, 9-4 Georgia Tech, 9-4 Illinois, 8-5 Tennessee, and 9-4 Washington, all of which finished unranked in the final AP Poll.

Luke Fickell’s final Coaches Poll vote

  1. Indiana
  2. Miami
  3. Ohio State
  4. Ole Miss
  5. Oregon
  6. Texas Tech
  7. Texas A&M
  8. Alabama
  9. Oklahoma
  10. Notre Dame
  11. BYU
  12. Texas
  13. Utah
  14. Virginia
  15. Michigan
  16. USC
  17. Georgia Tech
  18. Houston
  19. Iowa
  20. Tennessee
  21. Navy
  22. Arizona
  23. North Texas
  24. Washington
  25. Illinois

The coaches poll ballot serves as yet another puzzling decision made by Luke Fickell (or if someone voted on his behalf) after back-to-back extremely disappointing seasons at Wisconsin.

Across Fickell’s three seasons at the helm, the Badgers boast a 17-21 (10-17) record and have missed the postseason in back-to-back seasons for the first time since the 1991 and 1992 seasons.

Since Fickell took over for former head coach Paul Chryst, the program has seen a steady decline down the ranks of the Big Ten Conference. Newcomers such as Oregon, USC, and Washington quickly passed up Wisconsin, while programs such as 2025 National Champion Indiana and Illinois have steadily ascended up the ranks and flown past the Badgers.

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

The poll is not the only thing that has some upset with Fickell. 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. The Badgers have not been present in the end of season Coaches Poll since 2019 (No. 13).