MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell acknowledged Tuesday he was disappointed about the departure of athletic director Chris McIntosh, but doesn't believe his friend leaving will have a major impact on his future with the Badgers.
Fickell was going to have to start producing more victories regardless.
“I think the easiest thing for us right now is to understand you’ve got to win,” Fickell said after a morning practice. “We’re not beating around the bush.”
Fickell spoke one day after the announcement that McIntosh was leaving Wisconsin to take a newly created job as the Big Ten’s deputy commissioner for strategy. McIntosh, who had been Wisconsin’s athletic director since the summer of 2021, hired Fickell and continued to back him as the Badgers went 9-15 over the last two seasons.
Fickell said McIntosh had let him know “last week at some point in time” about the possibility of this move. Fickell added that “it’s not easy to lose a friend.”
“Anytime there are changes with people you know were in your corner, it’s always a little difficult, disappointing, whatever you want to say,” Fickell said. “But so is life. You’ve got to be able to move and continue to go on.”
Marcus Sedberry, who had been Wisconsin’s deputy athletic director/chief operating officer, is working as interim athletic director until a permanent successor for McIntosh is announced. Sedberry previously worked at Baylor, Arkansas and Central Florida as well as with the Philadelphia Eagles.
“When you’ve been to other places and seen how things are done, you get a lot of experiences — good and bad — you take a lot of things in, you recognize how things are done,” Fickell said. “I think that’s one of the great things about Marcus. He’s been in the NFL. He’s been in several different spots.”
McIntosh hired Fickell away from Cincinnati at the end of the 2022 regular season after firing Paul Chryst that October. The move earned rave reviews at the time because Fickell had gone 53-10 in his last five seasons at Cincinnati and had led the Bearcats to a College Football Playoff berth in 2021.
Fickell has gone 17-21 at Wisconsin thus far. The Badgers were 4-8 last year after going 5-7 in 2024, snapping what had been a Power Four-leading streak of 22 straight winning seasons.
McIntosh continually stood behind Fickell.
He made public comments supporting Fickell after a 27-10 home loss to Maryland in September. After Wisconsin was shut out at home against Iowa and Ohio State in consecutive October weekends, McIntosh sent a letter to season-ticket holders saying the school planned to increase its investment in its football program to “provide our coaches the tools necessary to succeed.”
Wisconsin had lost six straight games when McIntosh said Fickell would remain as coach beyond the 2025 season. The Badgers responded by splitting their final four games with wins over then-No. 24 Washington (No. 23 College Football Playoff) and Illinois (then-No. 21 CFP).
McIntosh’s promise to increase Wisconsin’s football investment also helped the Badgers add 34 transfers — including 27 from other Football Bowl Subdivision programs — this offseason.
Fickell said it was helpful to have an athletic director he knew so well but added that the expectations don’t change after McIntosh’s departure.
“We all understand this is big-boy ball and this is big business,” Fickell said. “It comes down to doing your job and doing it really well. … In the spots where I’ve been, there’s been different relationships with each AD. I think each one of them are unique. However it goes and whatever it is, what helps the relationship best of all is having success on the field and having a good product. I don’t think that’s going to change.”
AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
FILE - Wisconsin athletic director Chris McIntosh, left, introduces new head football coach Luke Fickell at a news conference, Nov. 28, 2022, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — After years of #MeToo infamy, legal peril and prison, Harvey Weinstein is again going on trial on a rape charge in New York City.
Jury selection started Tuesday in the onetime movie mogul's latest retrial, where jurors will weigh — for the third time — whether he raped hairstylist and actor Jessica Mann in a Manhattan hotel in 2013.
It's a more streamlined proceeding than the array of allegations that were aired at Weinstein’s previous trials in New York and Los Angeles. The Oscar-winning producer denies all the accusations and declared in court this winter that he had “acted wrongly, but I never assaulted anyone.”
Still, the retrial is expected to last up to six weeks. Questioned about the length of the proceeding and whether they could be fair and impartial about the much-publicized case, more than 80 prospective jurors asked to be excused during initial screening Tuesday morning.
About 60 others remained for further questioning in the afternoon.
While Mann's accusation may be familiar, specifics of the case may differ. In a surprise move before jury selection began Tuesday, prosecutors suggested they might seek to introduce a new piece of evidence — a remark that Weinstein allegedly made to a court officer six years ago.
According to Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Candace White, the officer told prosecutors last week that he was on hand for Weinstein’s February 2020 sexual assault conviction — which was later overturned — and heard Weinstein say: “If you had seen these girls, you would have done the exact same thing.”
Weinstein’s lawyers urged Judge Curtis Farber to keep any mention of the supposed remark out of his upcoming retrial.
“This sounds far-fetched,” defense attorney Marc Agnifilo said, adding that “it’s just too late” to introduce it.
A subject that was explored in prior trials — a claims fund for women who said Weinstein sexually mistreated them — likely won't come up again. The defense team doesn’t intend to raise the subject, Farber said.
Agnifilo and his partners took on the case in February, when longtime Weinstein lawyer Arthur Aidala stepped aside from the retrial to focus on the former studio boss’ appeals and civil matters. Both Aidala and Agnifilo are well-known New York defense attorneys, but their litigation styles differ. Aidala is folksy, while Agnifilo is more buttoned-up.
Weinstein wielded significant clout in the entertainment industry, having built his reputation on such critical and popular hits as “Shakespeare in Love,” “Pulp Fiction” and “Chocolat.” He also became a prominent Democratic donor.
Then a series of sexual harassment and sex assault allegations against Weinstein began to emerge in news media in 2017, propelling the #MeToo movement.
He was criminally charged in New York in 2018 and in Los Angeles two years later.
Weinstein went to trial and was convicted of some — but not all — counts in both cases. His initial New York convictions were overturned, spurring a retrial last year.
The retrial verdict was mixed: Weinstein was convicted of forcing oral sex on production assistant and producer Miriam Haley in 2006, but he was acquitted of forcibly performing oral sex on model-turned-psychotherapist Kaja Sokola. The jury didn’t decide on the rape charge involving Mann because the foreperson refused to keep deliberating.
Mann has testified that she had a consensual, on-and-off relationship with the then-married Weinstein. But when he cornered her in a Manhattan hotel room where she was staying on a weekend getaway, she protested, “I don’t want to do this,” she told jurors. She said he kept making advances and demands until she “just gave up.”
Weinstein hasn’t testified at any of his trials, but his lawyers have contended that he never had non-consensual sex. The defense claimed that his accusers willingly entertained his sexual overtures because they wanted his help in show business.
The women said Weinstein dangled his Hollywood influence to draw them into his orbit and then victimize them.
He's appealing the Los Angeles verdict and is expected to appeal the New York conviction involving Haley. It carries the potential for up to 25 years in prison; no sentencing date has been set.
In this case, the rape charge is a lower-level felony punishable by up to four years behind bars. Weinstein, 73, already has served longer than that.
Weinstein has various health problems and uses a wheelchair. He told the judge in January that his “mental state is collapsing” in New York’s notorious Rikers Island jail.
The Associated Press generally does not identify people without their permission if they say they have been sexually assaulted. Haley, Mann and Sokola agreed to be named.
Harvey Weinstein appears in Manhattan criminal court, Tuesday, April 14, 2026, in New York. (Steven Hirsch/New York Post via AP, Pool)
Harvey Weinstein appears in Manhattan criminal court, Tuesday, April 14, 2026, in New York. (Steven Hirsch/New York Post via AP, Pool)
Harvey Weinstein appears in Manhattan criminal court, Tuesday, April 14, 2026, in New York. (Angela Weiss/Pool Photo via AP)
Harvey Weinstein appears in Manhattan criminal court, Tuesday, April 14, 2026, in New York. (Angela Weiss/Pool Photo via AP)
Harvey Weinstein appears in Manhattan criminal court, Tuesday, April 14, 2026, in New York. (Angela Weiss/Pool Photo via AP)
Harvey Weinstein appears in Manhattan criminal court, Tuesday, April 14, 2026, in New York. (Angela Weiss/Pool Photo via AP)
Harvey Weinstein appears in Manhattan criminal court, Tuesday, April 14, 2026, in New York. (Angela Weiss/Pool Photo via AP)
