Luke Fickell contract status and buyout details: What Wisconsin football coach would be owed if fired

Luke Fickell is almost certainly not going anywhere this offseason, even before his contract enters the picture.

The Wisconsin football coach has had a tumultuous two seasons at the helm, with the Badgers missing a bowl game for the first time since 2001 after a deeply disappointing 5-7 season that featured lopsided losses to rivals Iowa, Nebraska and Minnesota.

But the program has made some recruiting gains under Fickell and, even with a brutal 2025 schedule upcoming, it’s unlikely Wisconsin would surrender after only two years of the Fickell era.

Brought in from Cincinnati to deep fanfare before the 2023 season, Fickell’s teams haven’t made a jump forward in the chaos of the transfer portal and NIL era, though it bears mentioning that the Badgers were dealt a blow when starting quarterback Tyler Van Dyke was lost for the season before Big Ten play to a torn ACL