Here’s a special Saturday morning edition of YSDA. Let’s call it No Kings, No Coaches.
While the Badger football team is being dismantled by Ohio State at Camp Randall this afternoon thousands of people will be out in the streets hoping to dismantle Donald Trump. We’ve commented sufficiently on the No Kings (Except Elvis) rallies, so let’s focus a bit more on the UW coaching situation.
Unless something really, really weird happens, the Badgers will be embarrassed today… on national television… at home… against coach Luke Fickell’s alma mater… while at half-time fans are reminded of the old glory days when members of the Rose Bowl teams from the 1990’s are honored.
By Sunday morning the pressure on athletic director Chris McIntosh to fire Fickell will be deafening. But he should resist for now. Here’s a suggestion for an orderly transition.
McIntosh should wait to fire Fickell until after the Badgers’ next embarrassing loss which will take place next week at Oregon. That will give the interim coach an extra week to adjust as the team has a bye the following week.
It doesn’t matter who the interim coach is. Barry Alvarez would be a good choice, but he’d be crazy to mess up his lifetime record and anyway, Barry doesn’t work cheap. If McIntosh is really in a pinch, I’ve watched a fair amount of football in my time, I’ll work for just $100,000 a game and I won’t lose any more games than anybody else. I’ll keep my cell phone close just in case.
At the same time that McIntosh announces his firing of Fickell he should announce that he’s agreed to step down. In another era he’d do the stand up thing and resign. But he won’t because if he formally resigns he doesn’t get his millions of dollars in buyout money. So, he’ll have to be fired, but it can be couched in some other terms. Whatever. As long as he’s gone.
Then Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin needs to hire an interim AD. Now, that should be Alvarez — or maybe Donna Shalala. Barry’s only real job will be to find a new coach. Everyone will trust him to do that right. In the meantime Mnookin can take some time to look for a permanent AD.
But here’s the crucial thing. The Board of Regents needs to step in and step up. The Regents have to insist on ending the ridiculous buyouts — golden parachutes — and the automatic pay raises regardless of performance. Fickell got automatic annual $100,000 increases even as he drove the football program into the turf for three years in a row. He’s owed around $28 million if he’s fired after the Oregon game. McIntosh will get $3.4 million (I’ve also read $4.4 million) if he’s fired now and he got $50,000 annual pay raises despite his performance. This madness has to end.
It has to end because golden parachutes and automatic pay increases aren’t just wrong, we can’t afford them. With increasing pressure to pay the players (as they should be paid), college football writ large just can’t afford these massive coach contracts anymore. Wisconsin should lead the way — in part out of necessity — to rein them in.
Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos 
IU’s recent massive contract for Curt Cignetti has reset the bar for college football coach salaries.
I wonder if they considered the cautionary tale of MSU’s Melvin Tucker.
The Spartans signed him to a mammoth new deal (10 years/$95 million) on the heels of a breakout 11-2 2021 season. A disappointing 2022 5-7 record which included 2 double overtime games (beating [groan!] 7-5 Bucky, but losing to 4-8 IU [still a Basketball school at the time]) at home must have left them feeling a little buyer’s remorse.
As fate would have it, and despite a 2-0 start the following year, Tucker’s…um…moral turpitude gave MSU an out; think Wisconsin might be exploring other…er…avenues to bypass a potential Fickell buyout?
Me too.
ON WISCONSIN!!!
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I like a guy like James Franklin, but I can’t imagine he’d take a contract without another massive buyout. That’s just his world. I think the Badgers will have to go with a young, promising but unproven coach who’s fully on board with the new NIL/transfer portal era and understands that programs can no longer afford to blow $30 million on a failing coach.
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Franklin’s a class act, and (I believe) any subsequent coaching salary will defray PSU’s debt by an equal sum.
Former players are letting their OPINIONS be known; it both ain’t pretty and is hard to disagree with.
“I think the Badgers will have to go with a young, promising but unproven coach“
That’s exactly what they did when they rolled the dice with Alvarez 35 years ago, I (and I’m not alone on this) could get behind the return of The Prodigal Son
“(W)ho’s fully on board with the new NIL/transfer portal era.”
They need to install the collegiate equivalent of a GM for the former. The latter? Just copy what Greg Gard’s doing.
Glass half full?
This afternoon’s Men’s Basketball (which can’t start soon enough!) annual Red -n- White scrimmage is sold out.
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Great point. Greg Gard has figured out how to work the portal. Fickell’s major failing might be that he hasn’t.
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Just an idea: Badgers hire Penn State coach and PS pays half of Fickel and McIntosh buyout.
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Ya know, I’ve thought of that very thing. There might be a way for the Badgers to get Franklin and both schools come out better than they would have with the payouts.
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The lack of equal negotiating ability is demonstrated by no sliding scale in the buyout amount. For example, there could be a 2/3 reduction if the most recent three seasons have ten fewer conference wins than the last three seasons of the previous coach.
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Exactly. I guess I’d be okay with some sort of buyout if it was at least tied to performance.
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It would be interesting to see an analysis of the effect of a football program’s performance on a university’s finances, admissions, etc. What has Wisconsin’s relatively strong football performance over the past 30 years given it that Purdue and Indiana lack?
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A legislator could ask Wisconsin’s Legislative Audit Bureau to dive into the very interesting question you raise. I honestly don’t know what the answer would be, but I’m quite sure that Wisconsin would still be a top research university even without a Division 1 athletic program.
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Yeah, see, the thing about Barry is he mentored McIntosh.
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You’ve got a point. Barry handpicked McIntosh. But I also think Barry’s a smart guy and he sees what’s happened to the program he built. He might be just the guy to go to Mnookin and McIntosh and tell them they have to work out an exit strategy.
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Dave, being 75 years old, I very well remember the BAD YEARS. I also remember some good years. but I do really feal bad for the Badger football team. what kind of God awful mess did Wisconsin get it’s self into, anyway? oh for a modern day Moses to lead us to the promise land.
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