Wisconsin AD Chris McIntosh reportedly leaving for a new job with the Big Ten

April 12, 2026|In Badgers

Wisconsin AD Chris McIntosh reportedly leaving for a new job with the Big Ten

April 12, 2026|In Badgers

Wisconsin AD Chris McIntosh reportedly leaving for a new job with the Big Ten

Wisconsin is in the market for a new athletic director.

The Wisconsin State Journal reported Sunday that current AD Chris McIntosh was stepping down and expected to take a job with the Big Ten office.

https://x.com/CBartWSJ/status/2043469666698301879?s=20

McIntosh leaves Madison after five years as athletic director and more than a decade with the athletic department. He was, of course, a two-time Rose Bowl champion offensive lineman for the school in the late 90s. He returned to the school in the mid-2010s and was Barry Alvarez’s choice to replace him.

It had been an up-and-down tenure at best for McIntosh, who had the added challenge of dealing with the constantly changing college athletics environment. Chief among the changes is the role Name, Image and Likeness has played in revolutionizing the college game, something Wisconsin struggled to adapt to, especially compared to some of its Big Ten rivals. Though McIntosh had successes, including the hire of Mike Hastings as men’s hockey coach and getting a new $285-million athletic facilities project over the finish line, there has been plenty of negatives. That includes a disastrous hire of Marisa Moseley as the women’s basketball coach, a move that brought a ton of losses on the court and plenty of time in court rooms off of the hardwood.

But McIntosh’s legacy will always be his decision to remove Paul Chryst as head football coach in the middle of the 2022 season, pass over a homegrown replacement in Jim Leonhard and hire an outsider in Cincinnati’s Luke Fickell

The hire was a splash and lauded on a national scale. But, to this point, it has not worked out for a program that averaged 10 wins a year under Chryst. Fickell is 17-21 leading the Badgers, including just 10-17 in the Big Ten. Wisconsin has missed a bowl game in back-to-back years for the first time since the early 1990s and are in the process of introducing nearly 50 new players to the roster.

The University of Wisconsin is now looking for a new system president, a new chancellor and a new athletic director.

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