The firestorm from Wisconsin fans around the football department was raging after losing 37-0 to Iowa. However, the attendance woes prove that many Badger fans checked out before the game and before the season. The Badgers publicized that it was a sellout weeks ago, and the announced attendance after the game confirmed it was the largest crowd all season at 76,064. The problem with that number is that it didn't represent what actually took place.
There were noticeably empty seats throughout the game, and after Jump Around, it was a mass exodus with the only Wisconsin fans left there to boo. The rest were Hawkeye fans. Here's a video of what it looked like 5 minutes before the game.
Five minutes till kick in Camp Randall. Lots of empty seats.
— Eliot Clough (@EliotClough) October 11, 2025
Might be some apathy in Madison. pic.twitter.com/Yi6Wu75Uwg
Wisconsin is struggling to sell tickets and empty seats may be the powerful image Chris McIntosh needs
Related: Luke Fickell finds Wisconsin rock bottom with the worst Iowa loss since 1894
It's hard for universities to fire their head coaches when they are owed millions of dollars. It takes a lot of guts and fundraising to pull it off. Eventually, though, the cost outweighs the long-term cost. Empty seats are a powerful image that the athletic department needs to see to pull the trigger.
None of the rest of the games are sold out. While the Wisconsin ticket office has them all listed as "almost gone." They've sat like that for weeks and after the disaster against Iowa, fans are not going to be as interested in buying tickets.
The resale tickets for Ohio State are down to $40 to get in the door, against the No. 1 team in the country. Fans saw a beatdown against Iowa. What will Ohio State do to the Badgers? Probably, play the backups and bring even more shame on Wisconsin.
Some may say the empty seats were partly due to the Milwaukee Brewers playing Game 5 at the same time. This is certainly true this season. Yet, if the Badgers were good, say a ranked team playing against Iowa for the Heartland trophy, both American Family Field and Camp Randall would have been packed.
The way forward is to tear it all down and rebuild. This can't continue or it will actually cost more long term than Fickell's buyout.