Before we dive in, I’m going to include myself in the “mob” that has had Wisconsin Badgers Athletic Director Chris McIntosh’s job status on our radar over the last year or so.
I’ve done my own thinkpieces and podcasts on whether or not his continued employment in Madison is in the best interests of the Wisconsin Athletic Department, and these have come with some hot takes, mostly fueled by a moribund Football program early in the 2025 season.
But job performance is a fluid concept, and opinions can
evolve over time. That’s where I am with Mac as the calendar turns to April of 2026.
So, a program-by-program evaluation for some of Wisconsin’s most popular sports is warranted now to properly gauge how McIntosh is currently performing. (Please note that his PR missteps matter, and there have been some, but these will not be directly assessed in the piece.)
Men’s Basketball
After football, this is the program that has cultivated the most detractors for the coach and, accordingly, his boss. But, despite another disappointing March for Greg Gard, it’s hard to argue objectively that the program isn’t successful right now.
A 24-11 record, good for 5th place in an ultra-competitive Big Ten, along with a series of elite wins (including three versus Final Four stalwarts Michigan and Illinois), showed that Gard’s high-scoring, modernized Badger system is working. He has also been amazing in the Portal with relatively modest resources, with Big Ten Player of the Year-caliber adds in back-to-back seasons in John Tonje and Nick Boyd.
The program’s recent NCAA Tournament record is vexing and, frankly, inexplicable, but McIntosh sticking by Gard has been an objective net positive when other ADs might have pulled the plug, bowing to the pressure of an impulsive mob.
Women’s Basketball
I need to start this off by noting there have been some notable missteps in the way McIntosh handled the end of the Marisa Moesely regime, which appears to have been a disaster. I’m not giving him a free pass here, but a lot of facts still need to come out, so I’ll put a pin in it for now. As far as on-court things, McIntosh ushered in a new era last spring by surprisingly bringing in former Missouri coach Robin Pingeton.
While her first season had plenty of highs (several clutch wins) and lows (a long losing streak), there was definitely a new energy and professionalism in the building. A nice run to the WBIT Final Four has been a joy to watch and shows that the Badgers’ late-season slide wasn’t as bad as it appeared.
More will be expected of Pingeton in the coming years, but this McIntosh hire seems to be a solid one based on early returns.
Men’s Hockey
I was elated when McIntosh brought Mike Hastings back in 2023. A certified Gopher killer from Minnesota State, Hastings helmed a clean, successful program coming off recent back-to-back Frozen Fours. But I also thought landing Tony Granato was a home run for Barry Alvarez, and that didn’t work, so the Hastings proof would be in the pudding.
A better-than-expected season No. 1 was followed by a disappointing sophomore campaign for Hastings, so year No. 3 was a bit of a referendum on this hire. Despite a few rough patches, Hastings and his skaters have passed the test and find themselves heading to the program’s first Frozen Four since Obama’s first term after a gutsy 4-3 OT comeback win over Michigan State in the regional final.
For now, this Mac hire has the look of a big winner.
Women’s Hockey/Volleyball
I’ll treat these two together since they were both unambiguously elite when McIntosh came in and have only gotten better since then. Whether this is a correlation or a cause isn’t 100 percent clear.
But it’s indisputable that Mac has overseen the retention of Mark Johnson and Kelly Sheffield when both were the hottest potential targets in their respective sports, as well as allowed each program to be elite in recruiting, including the transfer portal.
Increasing both programs’ NIL budgets has been a part of this, and McIntosh was a key player in that. Yes, McIntosh inherited two wildly successful programs, but both are arguably better in 2026 than they were when he was hired in early 2021, and if either had backslid, he would have been squarely in the crosshairs.
Mac deserves his flowers for keeping things humming along here.
Football
As noted above, this is the big one. There’s no question that McIntosh is forever linked to his first big hire, Luke Fickell. To say Fickell’s first three years have been disappointing is a wild understatement, especially relative to expectations that both men helped cultivate.
What looked like a rudderless program circling the drain halfway through the 2025 season righted itself in the second half of the slate, including ranked wins vs Washington and Illinois, while ending the season with a 4-8 record vs college football’s toughest schedule.
McIntosh claimed late in 2025 that football NIL funding was about to go way up, and this appears to have come to pass, given the robust amount spent to bring in a well-regarded transfer portal class led by quarterback Colton Joseph, and a strong start to 2027 recruiting, especially in-state.
Will this lead to better results in the fall? That very much remains to be seen, but a healthy QB and much easier schedule could combine for a nice bounce-back campaign.
If Wisconsin falters on the gridiron, it will mean the end of Luke Fickell’s time in Madison and, quite possibly, also McIntosh’s reign as Athletic Director.
