Hoosiers beat Wisconsin, then raid the Badgers’ for longest-tenured Fickell commit

The Hoosiers handed the Badgers another frustrating loss on Saturday and then swooped in and raided the recruiting chest, too. The Hoosiers were able to flip 3-star offensive lineman Benjamin Novak, who had been committed to Wisconsin and Luke Fickell for over a year. Another blow to the 2026 recruiting class, as now four have decided to leave.

Benjamin Novak has decided to flip his commitment from Wisconsin to Indiana

Related: Wisconsin's latest recruiting loss flips to Michigan as Luke Fickell's woes continue

The sharks have been swirling since the losing has derailed Wisconsin's season, and other programs are using the unpredictability of the future to steal recruits. Helping recruits recognize that while Wisconsin athletic director Chris McIntosh has said that Luke Fickell will return next year, what happens three or four games into next season, and the Badgers aren't better?

As a young recruit, the uncertainty has unnerved them, and programs with more upward rise and stability are able to grab Wisconsin's recruits. Indiana is a great example, as Curt Cignetti has the Hoosiers in a place they have never been, at the top.

Novak is also a recruit out of Indiana, and while that's been good ground for Wisconsin recruiting, Cignetti has also changed that, keeping more and more in-state players home to play for the Hoosiers.

The hardest part is that Novak was the first recruit in this class, the one who committed when no one else was there. He was the one who started it all for the future in that class, and now he's one of a few who are out the door.

Novak is the fourth player to decommit from the Badgers out of that class. He joins Maddox Cochrane, Aden Reeder, and Tayshon Bardo. It looks like there could be many more headed out the door in the next few weeks, too.