Report: Chris McIntosh to step down as Badgers AD

Wisconsin athletic director Chris McIntosh is shown during a program recognizing donors for the Kellner Center Athletic Center Thursday, August 28, 2025 at UW-Madison in Madison, Wisconsin. The estimated cost of the project is $285 million. Ted and Mary Kellner are major donors.

| Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images In a stunning move, Wisconsin Badgers Athletic Director Chris McIntosh is stepping down from his role and is set to take on a role at the Big Ten, according to BadgerExtra’s Todd Milewski. McIntosh, 49, had been in his role as Athletic Director since July 1st, 2021, working his way up after re-joining the University of Wisconsin-Madison as the director of business development in the Athletic Department in 2014. His major move came when he fired football head coach Paul Chryst in 2022 and elected to hire Cincinnati’s Luke Fickell to a seven-year deal.

So far, Fickell has gone 16-21 in three years at Wisconsin. McIntosh also hired Robin Pingeton as Wisconsin’s next women’s basketball coach after former head coach Marissa Moseley resigned. Pingeton went 16-18 in her first year at the helm, taking the Badgers deep on a run in the WBIT to the semifinals.

McIntosh had been a former football player at Wisconsin, playing with the Badgers from 1996-99 before taking on a professional career, getting drafted by the Seattle Seahawks in the first round of the 2000 NFL Draft. However, his pro career was cut short in 2001 due to a neck injury, and McIntosh went into the private business world before returning to Wisconsin. Prior to becoming Athletic Director, McIntosh was Wisconsin’s deputy athletic director from 2017-21 under former director of athletics Barry Alvarez.