Wisconsin athletic director Chris McIntosh expressed his “unrelenting commitment to do what is necessary” to make the Badgers into a title contender, but he is not firing head football coach Luke Fickell to do that.

In a written statement, McIntosh admitted that he has been disappointed in the Wisconsin football season, which has featured just two wins in seven games and zero Big Ten wins. He said the “results are simply not where any of us want them to be,” but said that he and Fickell “sees the potential in what this team can be.” As a result, McIntosh has decided to, at least for the moment, keep Fickell on as the head coach and instead focus on “investments” into areas such as staffing and NIL.

To say Badger Nation isn't convinced would be putting it lightly:

“You just realized that it takes real investment in the program to compete in today’s CFB?” one fan replied to The Zone's Zach Heilprin's post on X, formerly Twitter.

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“This is nothing but pure word salad….he said nothing,” another wrote.

Under Fickell, who was hired in 2022 and extended for another year in February of this year, Wisconsin is 15-18 overall and 8-14 in the Big Ten.

After a 7-6 mark in 2023, his first full season, Fickell oversaw a 5-7 season in 2024, and in this year, the Badgers are 2-5, with all five losses coming against power-conference opponents. In each of those defeats, Wisconsin has failed to score more than 14 points and lost by at least two scores. In both of the last two games, against rival Iowa and Ohio State, the Badgers have been shut out and outscored 71-0.

This week, Fickell and Wisconsin head out West to play at No. 6 Oregon, which beat Rutgers on the road 56-10 on Saturday.