Inside Luke Fickell's decision to become the Wisconsin football coach

INDIANAPOLIS – There were several criteria for Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell and his family when they evaluated a potential move from Cincinnati. After leading Bearcats to a College Football Playoff appearance in the 2021 season and recording 57 wins in six seasons, Fickell said there was a list of prerequisites, rather than a list of schools, for he and his family to consider moving.

“We had parameters as a family and in professional life of if I was ever going to leave, what I was going to do or what would be a good fit for us?” Fickell said in an exclusive interview with On3 at Big Ten Football Media Days. “That’s why it was a good thing we didn’t all of a sudden say, ‘Ok, well, you would leave for these six schools or these places.’ It became more parameters. It’s like what’s important to me as a professional and important to us as a family.”

The speculative lists of schools that fans or media members suggested could be a good fit for Fickell often included other programs in the Big Ten or Midwest. However, Wisconsin wasn’t one of the schools atop those lists.

When asked why the public hadn’t speculated about a potential future for Fickell in Wisconsin – a destination that felt both surprising at the moment, yet seemingly a pairing that made sense – he understood and related to the question.

“It’s the same with me,” Fickell said. “It’s the same with me.”

Fickell said Wisconsin – both the university and the football program – has a strong brand but that it should have an even greater brand nationally.

“I had no idea,” he later continued, “as we started to just look at Madison and talking about it, all those boxes would be checked.”

Wisconsin had everything for Luke Fickell, his family

When asked what some of the parameters were, Luke Fickell answered immediately.

“Catholic schools are a big deal for our kids to go to a place where they could be [at] a good Catholic school that they could go to and have a faith-based teaching and religion,” Fickell said. “But also for me, really good high school football. Like that’s important. I don’t think it’s fair if I didn’t give my kids the same opportunities that I have based on what’s best for me. So, that was important as well on the family side of things. Even for the little guys. That was really, really, really important.”

Location was also important for Fickell, who had previously only worked for college football programs in Ohio. In addition to coaching at Ohio State and Cincinnati, he served as Akron‘s defensive line coach for two seasons in the early 2000s.

“Being in the Midwest is important,” he said. “To be completely that far away from my wife and her family, I mean it’s a little ways away. But it would be difficult. And then professionally, the ability – can you play at the highest level? Can you have an opportunity not just to play in the playoffs but have a chance to win it all? Do you have the support? Do you have the history but also the wherewithal to recognize where this thing’s going to move forward? Do you believe that they would have that moving forward?

“That’s when some of those things – just like ‘Check, check, check. Well, I don’t know about this. Maybe we need to see. Check.’ It’s just unique how it all fell in line.”

Wisconsin’s NIL situation also checked out

Three days after Wisconsin announced the hiring of Fickell, Luke Fickell joined a Zoom call for The Varsity Collective to promote the NIL collective at his new school.

The collective that supports Cincinnati, Cincy Reigns, publicly launched on Nov. 21, 2022. Wisconsin hired Fickell six days later. While there was an NIL infrastructure at Cincinnati, it didn’t include a collective for almost all of Fickell’s tenure.

“That’s why you got to get into a place that recognizes what it is you need to do to be successful,” Fickell said. “If you’re at Cincinnati, or if you’re at one of the places in the AAC, there are some things that you got to do differently to be successful.”

Fickell said part of Wisconsin’s success will come down to him embracing what’s already in and around Madison.

“I think it’s just recognizing all the things you have,” Fickell said. “If you already have a collective – in some ways I wasn’t a big believer in the collective way. At Cincinnati, we were doing it a different way. So, there were some things like, ‘Ok now.’ If you didn’t believe in as much of that – just who’s in control and how that goes – you’ve got to dive in because it’s already been established here and get a feel because that’s what you’re going to need to be successful.

“It was an inordinate amount of learning. People would think it’s just about hiring and implementing your stuff and your culture. I believe if done the right way, it’s every bit as much of learning what is there and what has been there and what can be successful, as it is of just changing things.”

It’s key to figure out what’s important with NIL

On3 asked Luke Fickell how he attempts to separate fact from fiction in the NIL market now that he’s in the Big Ten. Within the conference last offseason, Ohio State coach Ryan Day told fans in the 2022 offseason that his roster needed $13 million in order to stay intact.

“You don’t,” Fickell said. “You don’t. You don’t. You figure out what’s important to you and what’s going to drive your program and what you need to do for your guys. As much time as you spend trying to figure out what other people are doing, it’s less time you have executing of the plan that you’ve got.

“Nobody knows what’s out there, to be honest with you. It’s a touchy subject, I’ve seen especially in the North. To say things publicly becomes a little bit more difficult because it’s not as embraced in the North, I think, by a lot. And I think it can kind of change the depiction of what it is that your program is and what is important to it. So, we always just focus on, ‘Hey, we’re going to do everything we can to take care of our kids.’ That means monetarily, too. But what’s good for a kid in Ann Arbor or Columbus might be different than what’s good for a kid in Madison, Wisconsin.”

Luke Fickell: ‘All we want is an opportunity’ to make the CFP

Luke Fickell said it’s important to not put a label on success.

“That’s what’s so hard today,” Fickell said. “It’s easy for anybody outside your program to label what success is. I mean Saturdays, it’s pretty simple.

“But there’s so much more to it than just that and that’s where I think the deeper you dive into it. You’ve got to figure out the things that you need to do to be successful. The wins and what happens on Saturday will fall into line along with the process.”

Fickell said a 16-team Big Ten that will eliminate its football divisions will turn the conference into more of an NFL-type model.

“I think we’re getting to the point where it’s going to be a little bit more like the NFL,” Fickell said. “And you hope that you get to 12 [teams] or you’re getting 16, it’s about getting to the playoffs. And I know that what they’ve all talked about in those meetings in the Big Ten is like, ‘How do we get as many teams to the playoffs as we can?'”

Fickell said the conference’s goal is to maximize the number of teams that earn a spot in the College Football Playoff.

“And I think that’s where you start to see where this thing is probably going to,” Fickell said. “And not defining what success is but all of a sudden having these parameters of things that give you an opportunity, whether it’s four teams that make it in 12, it’s five teams that make it in 12, it’s six teams. I mean, who knows. That gives you an opportunity and like any of us, all we want is an opportunity.”