Oddsmakers have thrown cold water on Luke Fickell’s Wisconsin rebound

Now that the 2025 National Championship is over and Indiana is done hoisting the trophy, the odds for the 2026 National Champion have been set. Wisconsin's odds are absolutely terrible and way down the list, dumping a nice cold bucket of water over Luke Fickell's rebuild. Vegas has zero hope that Wisconsin turns it around, and doesn't really even think it will be close in 2026.

The current odds for Wisconsin to win the College Football National Championship, according to FanDuel, are set at +100,000. Which is the same odds as schools like Bowling Green and Akron. There are other Big Ten teams that are low, like Minnesota and UCLA, but that's also not good company to keep.

Wisconsin has terrible odds to win the 2026 College Football National Championship

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There's been a resurgence of hope this offseason for Luke Fickell and Wisconsin as he's clearly had more money to spend, and he's been spending it. There will be some who complain that it's mostly 3-star transfers and lots of the incoming players are unproven at the college level. But the flip side is that Fickell is clearly spending more than he has in any other year.

And now with Indiana winning the championship, it's easy to say, recruiting and transfer rankings aren't everything. They did it without all the hype and 5-stars.

It should also be noted that Wisconsin fans aren't expecting a College Football National Championship this season. Thus, the odds are whatever, but there is hope that a bowl game is in the future and that the trajectory of Wisconsin football begins to head in the right direction.

Luke Fickell basically has this one year to prove that he can be an elite Big Ten coach at Wisconsin. The seat is extremely hot, and now Chris McIntosh and Fickell have pushed all the chips to the middle of the table. This season will show if they bust or if they score big and are headed in the right direction.