Luke Fickell has his work cut out for him during this transfer portal cycle. He needs to find 30+ players, with starters at most positions. However, most of that replacement is coming because of graduation rather than transfers. Wisconsin has 31 seniors who have exhausted their eligibility, and only about 17 (as of this writing) transfers are leaving.
That's a lot to replace; however, some programs have it far worse, simply in the transfers out category. Iowa State has close to 50 players transferring out. Oklahoma State is not far behind with 45 and counting. That's not even counting the seniors who also graduated.
Teams with the most players announced to the transfer portal
— College Football Zone (@CollegeFBonX) December 30, 2025
Iowa State - 47
Oklahoma State - 45
WVU - 29
Auburn - 27
FSU - 26
Colorado - 25
Florida - 25
Wisconsin is ready to dive head first into the transfer portal to upgrade their roster
Related: Wisconsin football transfer portal tracker: Who's out, in, and the speculation
Those programs are up a creek without a paddle and will have a hard time even fielding a competitive roster. However, Luke Fickell has been anticipating this offseason before even this season started. It may be worse than he thought, but he knew he was going to be looking for plenty of help in the portal.
The good news for Luke Fickell is that he's been guaranteed more revenue to spend on players, and one mega booster for Wisconsin said that the Badgers will be in the top third of FBS.
The transfer portal opens on January 2nd, and Wisconsin will be working diligently to bring in starter-level players at nearly every position. It's hard to look through the roster and not see a position group that can't use at least one starter; many of them may need the whole group rebuilt.
That rebuild will be the primary focus for the next few weeks, and you can expect that it will be a flurry of moves for Fickell and the Wisconsin Badgers.