Wisconsin football announced Feb. 17 the hiring of Marcus Sedberry as the program’s new general manager. Sedberry has been involved in Wisconsin football operations for the past three years as both the deputy athletic director and chief operating officer.
Sedberry spent five years at Baylor from 2017 to 2022 as a senior associate athletics director — dictating the school’s strategic directions in both fundraising and sport-specific projects — before signing on to Wisconsin.
The hiring comes after Wisconsin’s former general manager, Max Stienecker, was poached away Feb. 5 by Big Ten rival USC. Stienecker came to Wisconsin in 2023 as a player personnel director and was quickly promoted to GM in July of 2024. He had started his career under Fickell, at Cincinnati, as a student assistant back in 2018.
He then assumed a recruiting-focused role in 2021 and followed Fickell to Madison in 2023. His recruiting tactics under Fickell at Wisconsin were good enough to land two top-30 classes in the nation in the classes of 2024 and 2025.
Sedberry assumes the role of GM of Wisconsin football at a pivotal time. Not only is the team coming off its first missed bowl game since 2001, but also coming off a busy early portal window. During this window, 23 former Badgers left the program. But, including high school recruits, 30 new Badgers are heading to Madison.
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As it does every year, focus quickly shifts to the next class. Currently, the Badgers only have one verbal commitment in the 2026 cycle of high school football players. This period, in between the portal windows being closed from December 28 to April 16, serves as a key time to schedule visits and pursue top prospects.
More generally, the GM position in college football has gotten evermore important, as they are responsible for name, image and likeness deals and general organization of a school’s NIL as a whole, recruiting both high school and college players in the portal and complete oversight of roster management, along with general administrative duties.
Sedberry has the chance to help lead Wisconsin football back to a place of success, as he has the oversight over what players to bring in, along with other duties pivotal to the success of the football program. He found great success during his time at Baylor, and now fans hope, in an incredibly important role, he can find success at the University of Wisconsin.