I'm voting better for a couple reasons.

1 - I think there is a better than 50% chance Fickell will still be here in 5 years. As long as Luke gets what he wants in terms of facilities/staff salary pool and feels he can compete for championships here, he's only leaving for a handful of jobs at most.

2 - Our recruiting continues to trend upwards. Most of our current starters were low-to-mid 3 stars coming in; I think a few of them might have even been 2 stars. Now, we're bringing in double-digit mid-to-high 3 stars with a few 4 stars mixed in. Our average 247 composite recruit rankings in the Fickell era:

2017: 0.8270, ranked #63
2018: 0.8443, ranked #49
2019: 0.8456, ranked #66 (transfer-heavy class with only 15 high school commits)
2020: 0.8531, ranked #41
2021: 0.8524, ranked #45
2022: 0.8584, ranked #34

3 - Although the Big 12 is going to get the old Big East treatment from the media, the perception of playing in the Big 12 will still help.

4 - The CFP should expand to 12 within 5 years, so even if Cincinnati loses one or two games they wouldn't have in the AAC, they can still be in the hunt.