according to Fox6<\/a>, and the results are beyond painful.<\/p>\nFootball profits directly earned by the school are expected to drop $20 million, and the state as a whole could suffer a $280 million hit.<\/p>\n
You read that correctly. The football team no longer being a competitive program is expected to cost the state more than a quarter of a billion dollars.<\/p>\n
![\"MADISON,](\"https:\/\/images.outkick.com\/static.outkick.com\/www.outkick.com\/content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/668\/376\/gettyimages-2240122596-1-scaled.jpg?ve=1&tl=1\")
<\/p>\n
Wisconsin’s football team collapsing is expected to have a staggering financial impact on the state. (Photo by Dan Sanger\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
People are busy arguing about Luke Fickell’s buyout. That’s amateur hour chatter. The big brain people – like myself – are looking at the money drying up and realize it’s a far more pressing concern.<\/p>\n
Does the program want to pay roughly $28 million in buyout cash or lose around $280 million for the state and $20 million in direct earnings to the program?<\/p>\n
It’s just math, folks. It’s not complicated. I’d much rather bite the bullet on $28 million than $280 million, and anyone saying differently should never be trusted to hand out financial advice.<\/p>\n
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/images.outkick.com\/static.outkick.com\/www.outkick.com\/content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/668\/376\/gettyimages-2241885856-scaled.jpg?ve=1&tl=1\")
<\/p>\n
Wisconsin’s football team has turned into a pathetic joke. (Photo by Ross Harried\/NurPhoto via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Having said all that, watching the Badgers turn into a circus has been surprisingly fun. It seems like there can’t possibly be a new rock bottom\u2026\u2026..and there always is! What a sad time for Wisconsin fans, and it can always get much worse. Let me know what you think at David.Hookstead@outkick.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wisconsin is sitting at 2-6 with just four games left in the season. PublishedOctober 31, 2025 10:05 AM…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-263074","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"EUGENE,](\"https:\/\/images.outkick.com\/static.outkick.com\/www.outkick.com\/content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/668\/376\/gettyimages-2242997372-scaled.jpg?ve=1&tl=1\")
<\/p>\n