Also, a walk around campus will let you know that Wisconsin has plenty of wealthy benefactors ready to put their names on things. Maybe none like the Kohl family, but there's still plenty there. I do think that culturally, Wisconsin is little c conservative in the sense that the state, its residents, and its flagship university's alumni aren't generally the ones who lead the revolution, whatever that revolution might be. I think of the culture there as very practical--which is a good thing, generally. I'm not surprised that the folks leading the athletic department aren't trying to lead the way on changing the college sports landscape.
And, yes, the Packers, Brewers, and Bucks are a much bigger deal--that's true of most pro sports in most places.
And I know people are worried about the state of the football program, which has not been good for several years now. But hiring Fickell was the right decision, even if it doesn't turn out right. And it if doesn't, McIntosh (or the person who replaces him) will have to give it another go.
The whole air raid offense is an interersting thing. If I remember correctly, Brian Kelly had great success with a versin of it at Cincinatti, but was never really able to get it going at Notre Dame. Mike Leach was its grand wizard, and he had his moments, but did it really every get him all the way to the promised land? Maybe I'm wrong--this is gut feel, and two years of futility in Madison--but it feels like an offense that can work for lower tier programs because they can really get it going every now and again and use it to upset the bigger, more established programs. Something like it, although I think it's more often a more standard RPO offense can work for the highest tier programs because they can get the incredible athletes that it really takes advantage of, but I'm not sure it's a good offense to build a consistent, strong, but not elite program around. So if Fickell is going to use it to turn Wisconsin into a premier program--which is what Fickell and McIntosh have talked about--they are going to have to solve the recruiting/NIL issues. If not, Fickell is probably better off trying to get back to consistently very good teams, and then try to use that to push Wisconsin into the CFB playoff picture.
That was working under Bielema for a bit (it helped that Michigan and Ohio State each had their own pains at the time), and Chryst had a few very good seasons in which it seemed like the Badgers were on that cusp, before the program started to really suffer from recruiting problems (if I understand what happened correctly).
