Is Wisconsin going to hire another football GM? What Luke Fickell said

MADISON – Wisconsin athletic director Chris McIntosh’s swift departure – and the subsequent promotion of Marcus Sedberry to interim AD – poses plenty of questions for the future of the Badgers.

How quickly can Wisconsin search for a permanent athletic director? What will UW leadership value in choosing the next AD? Specifically for the football program, there is a much more immediate question.

Does Sedberry’s temporary promotion mean he will concurrently serve as both interim AD and football general manager, or will Wisconsin hire a new GM while Sedberry is tasked with running the athletic department? (Sedberry previously was a deputy AD in addition to his role as football GM.)

Luke Fickell did not definitively say one way or another, but he did say the Badgers need to be “ready to be able to move based on what happens probably by the end of this spring ball.”

“We just got to see what the whole timeline and what’s going to happen, but we got to be prepared,” Fickell said. “That’s the thing, as we all know. When you’re in athletics, things don’t wait. And every day, there’s an accelerated process in the athletic world that maybe doesn’t exist in everybody else’s world, and so we have to have a plan. We have to be prepared.”

Sedberry has been Fickell’s GM since 2025 and has been UW’s sport administrator for football since 2022 after previously working at Baylor. His other stops included Arkansas, UCF and the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles.

Sedberry previously estimated to the Journal Sentinel that his job commitments flipped from 70% toward administration to 70-80% toward football when he added the GM role. His responsibilities as GM included roster construction and retention and communication with agents.

“This is an opportunity where he’s got to make some decisions to see which direction I think he wants to go as well,” Fickell said.

McIntosh’s abrupt departure – with the resignation being effective on the same day as the announcement – comes midway through spring football practices. It more notably is well after the Badgers’ massive transfer portal haul in January and before a critical recruiting stretch in June.

“Selfishly speaking, it’s a decent time for us," Fickell said. "We’re locked in through all the recruiting and portal stuff for this season. Now obviously the following year, recruiting never stops. But at least we’re in a good place.”

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Is Wisconsin going to hire another football GM? What Luke Fickell said