Wisconsin AD departs

Chris McIntosh is leaving Wisconsin’s athletic department for a senior job in the Big Ten office, according to multiple reports Sunday and Monday. (sportsbusinessjournal.com) (wkow.com) Sports Business Journal reported McIntosh will become the conference’s chief strategy officer and report directly to Commissioner Tony Petitti. Other reports described the post as a newly created deputy commissioner for strategy role, with McIntosh stepping down effective immediately. (sportsbusinessjournal.com) (newsday.com) McIntosh took over as Wisconsin athletic director on July 1, 2021, after succeeding Barry Alvarez. Wisconsin’s athletics staff directory says he is a former Badgers student-athlete and National Football League player. (uwbadgers.com) His exit creates an immediate opening at one of the Big Ten’s flagship athletic departments as schools enter the first full year of direct athlete-pay rules under the House v. National Collegiate Athletic Association settlement. McIntosh told Wisconsin supporters in October 2024 that revenue sharing with athletes was scheduled to begin in fall 2025. (uwbadgers.com) (ropesgray.com) The conference side is getting bigger, too. United States of America Today reported the Big Ten generated more than $928 million in revenue in its 2024 fiscal year, and Petitti has led the league since May 2023. (usatoday.com) (bigten.org) At Wisconsin, McIntosh’s tenure included one of the school’s biggest coaching moves in years: hiring football coach Luke Fickell on Nov. 27, 2022. Wisconsin’s official football bio says Fickell enters his fourth full season in 2026 after a 4-8 record in 2025. (uwbadgers.com) (espn.com) The department he leaves behind is still a large business. The Knight-Newhouse College Athletics Database lists Wisconsin’s athletics revenue at nearly $198 million in the most recent reported year, and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported media-rights income helped drive gains in the school’s 2024-25 filing. (knightnewhousedata.org) (jsonline.com) Neither Wisconsin nor the Big Ten had publicly posted a formal announcement in the reports cited Monday morning. For Wisconsin, the next question is who takes over an athletic department now dealing with football pressure, athlete-pay budgeting and a conference that just hired away its director. (wkow.com) (wsaw.com)