The Big Ten is an extremely competitive league, and teams can jostle for position any given year. This would make ranking the coaches a difficult task, and yet Paul Myerberg of USA Today has descended into chaos to come up with his latest Big Ten coach rankings. It has a few coaches right on the money, like Luke Fickell, but the rest are confusing at best and downright wrong at worst.
Here's his list as shared by The Big Ten Huddle on social media, what do you notice right off the bat?
Big Ten Head Coach Rankings, according to USA Today’s Paul Myerberg pic.twitter.com/U6UoB0BgyL
— The Big Ten Huddle 🎙️ (@TheBigTenHuddle) May 5, 2025
Luke Fickell is considered a middle of the pack coach by Big Ten analyst Paul Myerberg
Like most Wisconsin fans, it was hard not to immediately find Luke Fickell's name and see where he fell in the rankings. However, getting to No. 11 took effort because of the top 3. Kirk Ferentz, at number three, is insane energy. His reasoning was mainly because he's been good at being better than bad for so long. Like the consistency of mediocrity was the reason he's at the top. Yikes. Matt Rhule at five is also a bit wild, considering he's now put up two consecutive seasons of 3-6 in the Big Ten.
However, somehow, Myerberg nailed Luke Fickell at No. 11. That's the good news and the bad news about Fickell. He's only proven to be a middle-of-the-pack coach. He's not the worst in the Big Ten, but he's nowhere near the best, and that's why he's frustrating, so far as Wisconsin fans are concerned.
"Fickell has gone 12-13 in two full seasons with the Badgers, including last year’s team ending a run of 22 consecutive bowl appearances with the program’s first losing record since 2001. His missteps since arriving in Madison, notably at quarterback, makes this a huge season for Fickell’s future."Paul Myerberg - USA Today
Myerberg explains that Fickell is a middle-of-the-pack Big Ten coach because he's been mediocre in his two seasons so far, going 12-13, which is basically .500. You could argue that he could be a little lower, but not by much, considering what is currently at the bottom of this list. Either not great coaches or programs like UCLA under DeShaun Foster or completely unproven coaches like Jedd Fisch at Washington.
It's a wild and erratic list but somehow he nailed Luke Fickell at No. 11 in the Big Ten Coach Rankings.