JosephC

McIntosh will not fire Fickell unless the order comes from above, which isn't happening anytime soon. Every now and then you will run into a chancellor who has particular interest in the athletic department, but Jennifer Mnookin doesn't strike me as one of those people. The UW administration as a whole will only care about the athletic department's balance sheet, and will only react AFTER something significant happens there. If the athletic department's revenue remains strong, I don't think there is any chance McIntosh gets any interference with what he's doing. And as upset as I suspect most Badger fans are, I don't see Camp Randall's attendance dropping to 55,000 per game next year. And as far as McIntosh firing Fickell without influence from his boss, well, he pretty much put his reputation on the line when he got rid of a successful head coach, passed on a popular internal candidate and went with his hand-picked guy. I don't see him as being very quick to admit he made a mistake. If anything, I see him sticking with Fickell right until the moment where he thinks his own job is in serious jeopardy.

An Ohio State grad that I know questioned the Fickell hire. Even with he excellent record at Cincinnati, he wasn't convinced that Fickell was Big 10 material. Ohio State records: 2009 = 11-2, 7-1 (Tressel) 2010 = 12-1, 7-1 (Tressel) 2011 = 6-7, 3-5 (Fickell) 2012 = 12-0, 8-0 (Meyer) 2013 = 12-2, 8-0 (Meyer) I really didn't think that was a fair assessment, as Fickell took over a program that was really messed up and every single player knew that he was a lame-duck. But looking back at that now, that 6-7 record sticks out like a sore thumb. There is no way that Ohio State team had a 6-7 talent level. Fickell now has a 11-15 record as a Big 10 coach against Big 10 competition.

First sub-.500 season with no bowl game since 2001. IMO, the worst Badger football season since 1991. 2024 most impressive win was against Rutgers, who at 6-5 overall and 3-5 Big 10 (currently) will at least be going to a bowl game. Can't say the same about Northwestern and Purdue. The two non-conference wins against Western Michigan and South Dakota are nothing special, although at least Western Michigan will also be going to a bowl game. Ended the season with a 5 game losing streak, and simply were not competitive against long-time rivals Iowa and Minnesota. Last sub-.500 season was in 2001 (5-7, 3-5), and in that season they beat Iowa, Penn State and a ranked Ohio State team (Ohio State ranked 21st at the time, finished 7-5). Prior to that, the last sub-.500 season was 1995, when they finished 4-5-2 (3-4-1 in Big 10). That season they beat a Penn State team that was ranked 6th at the time (was #13 in the final poll) and also had a win against a 6-5-1 Michigan State team. Before that was 1992 (5-6, 3-5). The Badgers beat an Ohio State team ranked 12th at the time (finished at #18 in the final poll), although the other 2 Big 10 wins were nothing to write home about (a bad Purdue team and a terrible Minnesota team). So that takes us back to 1991, Badgers were 5-6 overall, but only 2-6 in conference. The conference wins were against Northwestern (3-8) and Minnesota (2-9). The non-conference wins were against Eastern Michigan, Western Illinois and the one "big conference opponent" win was against a 3-7-1 Iowa State team. This was so long ago, Iowa State was a Big 8 team (before they expanded to become the Big 12). 1991 was Alvarez's second year at the Badger head coach. So I'd put this as the worst Badger football season in 33 years, and IMO it's not really even debatable. Fickell, and especially McIntosh, should be looking for the nearest rock to crawl under tonight.

I did watch 1 quarter against the Vikings and 2 quarters against the Lions. Williams looks like he will be better than I thought he would be. He takes dumb sacks, but I didn't see him throw any balls to the opposition (only 5 interceptions all year), which to me is a big deal for a rookie. The offensive skill positions are fine and the defensive backfield looks decent although they have one glaring dumb-ass playing back there. But both lines looked terrible and I was less than impressed with their linebackers. The defensive line did generate some pressure from what I saw, but they are downright terrible against the run. So yeah, there are some guys there, but there are enough holes on the roster to where they looked like a 7-10, maybe 8-9, team to me. Then add in all the injuries they had on the offensive line a few weeks ago (I think they only had 1 starter playing for the majority of the Patriots game), and it's no surprise that they have no shot at hitting 8 wins and are pretty unlikely to get to 7. Looking at the rest of their schedule, 5-12 seems most likely to me.

Despite the pitiful offensive showing, the Gophers are nowhere near a ranked team. The Badgers can still win this game if they get their crap together.

Bears interim head coach is a former Badger running back coach.

Great move by Fickell to fire Longo before the season ended. That move looks like it really paid off. 1st half stats - 43 yards of total offense (37 passing yards and SIX rushing yards) and zero points.

Even worse than that, IMO, is that Cots has the Dodgers current luxury tax penalty for 2025 as being 46 million. As a 5th time payer, they are a 50% payer and then add a 60% surcharge for already being 60 million over the luxury cap limit, Their penalty is likely already over what the A's payroll will be this season. If they add another 60 million in payroll, which wouldn't be the least bit surprising, their tax would likely be higher than about 8 MLB teams payrolls, and the Brewers would be a likely candidate to be on this list.

I might not watch these games anymore, but I still pay a bit of attention. Just checked the box score, and it looks like Fickell probably should have fired the defensive coordinator too.

Yeah right. More like, "you are third string at best behind Allen and Mellusi, those guys can find holes that are smaller than 10 yards wide."

If I were a Jets fan, I'd prefer keeping Rodgers (regardless of how washed up he is) and get rid of the owner. Woody Johnson bought the team in January of 2000. This is year #25 under him. Regular season record of 171-227, a .430 winning percentage. 6 playoff appearances in 25 years, but none in the last 14 years. Only 1 division title in those 25 years, that happened all the way back in 2002, Incredible to think that almost all of those years (the last 23) they were in a 4-team division, and still can only manage 1 division title. Last place finisher 9 times. Last 8+ seasons = 44-98, a .310 winning percentage. Somehow I just can't blame any of the 5 general managers, 8 head coaches or many quarterbacks they have had over the last 25 years as being the franchise's biggest problem.

I think Potrykus forgot about Pelini. Controversial for sure, but in terms of W/L he was pretty successful at Nebraska. And I definitely didn't interpret the tweet as a "what might have happened if Longo stayed" comment. I think it's more along the lines of, "did McIntosh screw up when he went away from the Alvarez tree?" He brings up Callahan...Nebraska went from Osbourne to Solich (who was Osbourne's OC) to Callahan and there was a huge drop-off with Callahan. Solich had a 58-19 record (.753 winning percentage) to Callahan's 27-22 record (.551). As of now, Chryst at Wisconsin was 67-26 (.720 winning percentage) and Fickell sits at 13-11 (.542). I posted it on the previous page or the one prior to that, Fickell deserves 4 full seasons to see if he can improve dramatically on that 13-11 record. I believe that and I am sticking with that. But the early returns are not looking good.

Bad look for Fickell. Longo was undoubtedly the big "get" of Fickell's first Wisconsin coaching staff, and doesn't even make it through 2 seasons.

So I was looking at undefeated Oregon, and those undefeated teams usually start really feeling the pressure... and then they have to travel halfway across the country and end up stepping into the hornet's nest. So I had to look at the schedule and see what game followed Bucky, just in case Oregon may be overlooking Wisconsin and already be preparing for the following game. Only to find out that Oregon has a bye week after the Wisconsin game. Bucky being a 14.5 point dog is sounding just about right to me.

McIntosh gets full blame if this move does not work out. UW got off to a poor start in 2022 (which seems fairly routine for the program), but they still had a highly successful coach who was coming off a 9-4 year (that includes a 6-3 record in the Big 10 and a bowl win). Then instead of going with Leonard, who was highly liked and respected among the players, he decided to go in a completely different direction. I have stopped watching Badger football but would not give up on Fickell yet. Even though the transfer process would lead one to believe that rebuilding should occur much faster, I don't know if I buy that concept or not. The Badgers did a complete change in philosophy on both sides of the ball, and I would argue that Fickell needs four full seasons before we can really pass any judgement on him. But IMO it all goes back to McIntosh. If Fickell puts this program back to 9-10 wins pretty much every season, then McIntosh gets credit. If Wisconsin turns into a 7-6 (4-5 conference record) program, McIntosh should face the consequences of that. This is all fully and completely on him.

You think Rodgers will really retire? I don't know. It's not often that a guy gets to be both quarterback and general manager at the same time. Sounds like too much fun to me.

If I didn't miss anything, in the Brewers last 6 playoff appearances, the Brewers have a 1-6 playoff series* record and 7-15 playoff game record. * = includes 1-game wild card playoff as a series Sad thing is that 5 winning games came in the first year of that streak. Brewers last 5 playoff appearances has resulted in a 0-5 series record and 2-10 playoff game record. I'd take the Dodgers, but "relative to expectations" can be interpreted differently by different people. But for people curious, over the last 12 years the Dodgers have a 15-10 playoff series record and a 64-55 playoff game record.

Lets hand them 500 million dollars in free money for the stadium and then watch them move 33% of the games to a different stadium. That would go over really well.

Not if the middle-man pays you way more than what you are worth. https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewwagner/2024/10/09/brewers-leave-bally-sports-mlb-to-produce-local-broadcasts/ The Brewers’ small market size also resulted in one of the smallest rights deals in baseball, earning a reported $34 million per year over the course of their most recent four-year contract. Schlesinger admits there will be some “choppy waters” from a financial standpoint as the team navigates the transition but the ability to take control of distribution, advertising and sponsorships is expected to benefit the team in the long-run. “If you look at most local teams and all sports, there's certainly some step-back financially from that but from our perspective,” Schlesinger said. “We’re looking at this long-term.” 34 million from Bally that is now gone, and production costs that were handled by Bally is now going to fall on the Brewers and MLB. The Brewers/MLB will now receive payments from the cable companies and advertising revenue. But based on how much money that Bally was losing in these regional sports network deals, it's a really safe bet that in the short term, the revenue that the Brewers/MLB will now get will not be all that close to the 34 million that they will lose and the production costs they are now responsible for. "Choppy waters" and "step-back financially" aren't encouraging words for the short-term.

After last year's World Series ratings disaster, it's no surprise that the next World Series would be a Dodgers/Yankees matchup.

I was 100% against Rose being in the Hall of Fame because he bet on baseball. But now that owners have partnered with sportsbook and make money from gambling on baseball, I completely changed my tune on Rose. As long as there is no evidence that he bet against his own team, then I fully support him going in. If owners can make money from gambling on baseball, no reason players shouldn't be able to do the same thing unless there is evidence that they bet against their own team (and threw games).

Why would the NFL be involved in this:? NCAA football has already proven to be the perfect, completely cost-effective (as in no cost) minor league system for the NFL. I really think it is time for the TV networks to get together and break D1 into 3 tiers. The former top "power five now four" can be split into (1) the divisions of teams the networks want to show non-stop (USC, Ohio State, Georgia) and then (2) the rest (Wisconsin, Washington, North Carolina). Then the last tier can be the Mountain West and MAC teams and schools there were not a former power five members. No use even bickering among ourselves about who is in tier one and who is in tier two. There doesn't even need to be any discussion among the school presidents as to who goes where. They are all owned by TV money anyway, they might as well just be mindless pets at this point. Might as well just skip all the foolish yearly re-alignments and just get to the end game and let ESPN, FOX and CBS set up whatever system they want.

Mays top 5 all-time in bWAR. And looking at all of the names and the company he is in, I don't think it's unreasonable for anyone to make the argument that he is THE greatest player to ever play.

Yes, this story is off-the-rails crazy. The fact that she was hired by people in the UK makes it seem like she has a reputation and has been doing it awhile. How would they have ever found her if that wasn't the case? But reading the story makes it sound like she was either new at this or just completely incompetent. The really insane part is going to the guy's house by taxi and then firing off a few rounds at it. "Hey, just leave the meter running, I'll be right back after I shoot up this guy's house." That's as messed up as it gets.

I don't think Judge throws his arm up with the intention of interfering. He's been around for way too long, and played in much more significant games, to have this be the first time he's knocked down a throw. If he's looking to interfere with throws, he's not going to pick an early season game with Milwaukee in his ninth season to see if he can get away with it. I think he intentionally raises his arm for the purpose of distracting the middle infielder and trying to get him to make a bad throw. For anyone claiming that this is just his natural way of sliding, the following is proof that it is not. So early in this video it appears like it's perfectly logical to claim that his arm just goes up "naturally" when he slides. First 4 slides in this the left arm goes up in a pretty consistent manner. But look at the fifth slide, with that slide he throws both arms up, How is that a normal slide? Then look at the seventh slide, with that one the left arm stays down and the right arm goes up. Look at the position of the middle infielder on those two slides. Clearly on those two he is purposely throwing his arm up in an attempt to distract the fielder. When Judge knocked that ball down I would bet just about anything that he was mad at himself because he knew that he was going to be called for interference. He was probably the most surprised person in the stadium when the umpires concluded that it was not interference. It was a complete failure by the umpires.