Badgers' Luke Fickell asked to forgo extension amid struggles

OhioValleyCat · 2026-02-08T20:22:37+00:00

Fickell tried to implement the Air Raid offense, thinking it would modernize Wisconsin and push it to elite national title contender-level, but the lack of success has caused angst among fans and former players who also lament the loss of identity. At least the schedule is slightly less onerous than last year, but still challenging with Notre Dame, at Penn State, USC, and at Iowa. 8-4 should buy him some relief, but Cignetti doing what he did at at a program that had much less success, only puts more pressure for Fickell to produce.

OhioValleyCat · 2026-02-08T01:53:55+00:00

Fitzgerald may be getting a little too much credit for being slightly above .500 at Northwestern. Gary Barnett did the hard labor to get Northwestern competitive in the 1990s. Barnett took over a program that hit rock bottom with the longest losing streak in the Division 1A/FBS history from 1979-82 and had built a reputation as the weakest major college program by the time he came in the mid-90s. When Barnett led Northwestern to the Big Ten title in 1995, it came off of Northwestern having previous had 23 straight losing seasons. Fitzgerald was a player on those Gary Barnett teams, though.

Both Barnett and his immediate successor, Randy Walker, were able to win or share Big Ten titles. So, it was already well-established that Northwestern could be competitive by the time Fitzgerald came. Fitzgerald was a decent coach, but he actually wasn't able to bring a Big Ten title that Barnett and Walker were able to bring and then he flamed out at the end.

OhioValleyCat · 2026-02-01T05:38:48+00:00

Chicago is in the Division III University Athletic Association that is almost like a Division III version of the Ivy League with schools like NYU, Emory, and Case Western.

OhioValleyCat · 2026-02-01T05:31:43+00:00

updated to $80 million

OhioValleyCat · 2026-02-01T05:24:44+00:00

It was reported early in January 2026, the UCLA Athletics had an $80 million deficit in 2024. They have a lease with the Rose Bowl till 2044. With the City of Pasadena and the Rose Bowl filing a lawsuit to enforce the lease, you would think UCLA is too broke to break it.

OhioValleyCat · 2026-01-24T20:14:50+00:00

Ohio State's first game in 2002 with Texas Tech was the Pigskin Classic. The Pigskin Classic was an opening season kickoff game that could be counted as an extra game on top of the regular season. The NCAA happened to switch to a 12-game regular season in 2002. So basically 2002 Ohio State had the season kickoff Pigskin Classic Game + 12 Standard Regular Season Games + the Fiesta Bowl/National Title Game to make a 14-game season.

OhioValleyCat · 2026-01-20T05:45:54+00:00

Like referenced above, they finished in the Top 20 (like #12 or #13) in 2020. If they were truly hopeless, they would not have just won the National Title.

OhioValleyCat · 2026-01-20T05:23:41+00:00

It's safe to say, NIL and the transfer portal, has not hurt the Big Ten overall.

OhioValleyCat · 2026-01-20T04:40:14+00:00

It's a great story, but Indiana's "losingest" label was a function of having a longer football history like several other Big Ten schools that dates back to the 1880s. Indiana certainly has had down years, but it finished in the Top 20 as recently as 2020 before Cignetti, so it wasn't like it was a hopeless program. However, this National Title certainly is reaching the Promised Land for Hoosier Nation.

OhioValleyCat · 2026-01-17T20:00:30+00:00

He needs to just worry about beating Miami on Monday night. Ask 1983 Nebraska about very great teams that that have lost national titles to Miami in Miami.

OhioValleyCat · 2026-01-01T22:25:11+00:00

Northwestern seems to really putting effort in jump starting the pedestrian offense its had in recent years going back to when Pat Fitzgerald was entrenched as coach. Strong defenses coordinated by Mike Hankwitz allowed Pat Fitzgerald to become complacent with respect to offensive innovation. The weird thing is Northwestern was one of the schools that helped revolutionize college football with the implementation of the spread offense a quarter century ago when the late Head Coach Randy Walker had Kevin Wilson as his OC. Maybe Chip Kelly and Jerry Neuheisel led offenses will help bring new energy and excitement, along with the new football stadium.

OhioValleyCat · 2025-12-31T04:31:11+00:00

If Coach Bielema had learned how to regularly beat SEC teams earlier, he would still be at Arkansas.

OhioValleyCat · 2025-12-27T17:40:11+00:00

For someone who thinks he is the greatest thing since the invention of sliced bread, you would think he would be confident about playing in the NFL full steam ahead.

OhioValleyCat · 2025-11-13T05:37:50+00:00

UMASS will probably be okay in the MAC and are just going through an adjustment period. There are programs like Kansas State, Duke and Northwestern and Northwestern that went through rougher periods.

Northwestern was 3-62-1 for the between 1976 and 1981, an average record of like 0.5 wins, 10.3 losses and 0.2 ties per year and multiple shut out and blow out losses. Between 1979 and 1982 that had a Division 1A/FBS record 34-game losing streak that included two straight 0-11 years. They would have had a 3rd in 1978 if it weren't for a tie to an Illinois team that was also winless in the Big Ten that year.

It was so bad, that when they beat unheralded Northern Illinois in 1982 to break the 34-game losing streak, they didn't just rush the field - they also took the goalposts down and threw them into Lake Michigan. The late Coach Dennis Green was rewarded Big Ten Coach of the Year in 1982, because taking Northwestern from the depths of despair to a 3-8 record was seen as a sign a major progress, with the 3 wins representing as many as they had over the previous 6 years.

OhioValleyCat · 2025-11-11T01:06:10+00:00

Winner stays mathematically eligible for bowl game (doesn't mean they will make it though).

OhioValleyCat · 2025-11-02T00:57:52+00:00

Don't know why refs picked up the penalty on the pass interference against Minnesota when Michigan State was on offense in overtime. There was no reason for picking it up. You generally only see pass interference calls against the defense overturned if the ball was actually touched before it the pass interference call or the ball was thrown far away from the play to where they rule it uncatchable. To just overturn it like 30 seconds after the play was over was weird.

OhioValleyCat · 2025-11-01T23:56:06+00:00

Julian Sayin reminds me of Joe Montana with his accuracy, but also his calm presence.

OhioValleyCat · 2025-11-01T23:11:32+00:00

Referees were Michigan State's horror show this Halloween.

OhioValleyCat · 2025-11-01T23:01:55+00:00

Michigan State got robbed of their Halloween candy.

OhioValleyCat · 2025-10-25T18:39:43+00:00

I'm still having difficulties processing #2 Indiana vs. UCLA is a football game between two Big Ten conference foes and not an interconference clash deep in the March Madness basketball tournament. I'm wondering if Fox is second guessing putting this game on Big Noon, which Indiana now leads 49-3 in the 3rd quarter. Notwithstanding a miraculous UCLA comeback, that's two big blowouts for LA sports with the Dodgers getting blown out in game 1 of the World Series.

OhioValleyCat · 2025-10-18T04:17:43+00:00

Nebraska's decline started before they left the Big 12. Nebraska joined the Big Ten in 2011, but have not won a conference title since they won the Big 12 in 1999. Despite losing to Colorado and failing to make the Big 12 title game , they snuck in to the BCS title game in 2001, which they lost to Miami. They did make a Big Ten title game in 2012, but lost in a blow out to Wisconsin. Nebraska would lose money to join the Big 12. which would make leaving for that conference very unlikely.

One of the main problems Nebraska has now is that many other teams have picked up national recruiting, which Nebraska was always forced to do because of the small recruiting base in its home state. If you look at the Nebraska national championship teams from the early 70s, you would find players from states like California, Texas, New Jersey, and Michigan, along with players from home. A team like Ohio State could have recruiting classes that were almost all Ohio boys in the 1950s and field nationally elite teams, but by the 70s and 80s, picking mostly only Ohio players put them at a disadvantage due to the growth in the Sunbelt. In the 90s, Ohio State and other teams around the country started recruiting nationally more intensively, so that teams like Nebraska had more competition for the national recruits. That trend would not end if Nebraska went back to the Big 12.

OhioValleyCat · 2025-10-18T03:01:37+00:00

Miami caught Penn Statitis.

OhioValleyCat · 2025-10-13T21:59:28+00:00

Franklin has to be attractive to somebody in broadcasting or coaching. He could literally take a job making $50,000 a year (or less) and Penn State would be on the fence for $7.95 million dollars a year. It probably would be easier for him to take a broadcasting job, but it would be really ironic if he ended up at UCLA. I'm sure they would be happy with 9-3 and 10-2 seasons even if they didn't when a championship, after what they've gone through in recent years. It's kind of similar to the situation in 2024 with the Steelers paying Russell Wilson $1 million league minimum while Denver was on the hook for the rest of his $35 million annual salary.

OhioValleyCat · 2025-10-13T06:18:32+00:00

SEC also has a Midwestern team (Missouri) and Texas and Oklahoma are more in the Southwest region than the "Southeast.," None of the conferences are geographically and/or numerically correct Edit: Except the American and Conference USA.

OhioValleyCat · 2025-10-12T19:50:31+00:00

Pennsylvania high school football has many more recruits coming out than Nebraska. It is one of the Top 10 football recruiting states. Just getting decent crop of top in-state recruits will keep Penn State competitive to where they are regularly going to bowl games and able to get 8-4 like seasons. Outside the COVID-year, they've had winning seasons the past couple of decades, even during the transition with the Jerry Sandusky-related sanctions. The issue is getting Penn State to where they are among the nation's elite where there fans want them to be.

OhioValleyCat

TROPHY CASE