Wisconsin athletics director Chris McIntosh is leaving the varsity to become the Big Ten’s deputy commissioner for technique, sources advised ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg on Sunday, confirming a number of stories.
McIntosh will work carefully with commissioner Tony Petitti and the league’s senior workers, sources advised Rittenberg.
“On one hand it’s very difficult for me to transition away from a place that’s so important to me,” McIntosh told the Sports Business Journal. “On the other hand, it’s an incredible honor and an incredible opportunity to be able to transition to a position at the Big Ten and to work for an incredible leader like Commissioner Petitti and alongside some top-tier, very capable members of the Big Ten as we navigate a dynamic period for college athletics.”
McIntosh, 49, took over as athletic director in the summertime of 2021 after the retirement of Barry Alvarez. He performed soccer for the Badgers and was a part of two Rose Bowl-winning groups coached by Alvarez.
McIntosh was named affiliate athletic director in 2014. He grew to become deputy athletic director below Alvarez in 2017.
He fired soccer coach Paul Chryst halfway by way of the 2023 season and employed Luke Fickell to change him. Fickell has gone 17-21, together with a 4-8 end final yr and a 5-7 mark in 2024 that snapped what had been a Power Four-leading streak of twenty-two consecutive successful seasons.
Also in 2023, McIntosh fired males’s hockey coach Tony Granato and introduced in Mike Hastings from Minnesota State. Wisconsin reached the Frozen Four this season and misplaced 2-1 to Denver within the nationwide title recreation Saturday.
During McIntosh’s tenure, Wisconsin has received three nationwide championships in ladies’s hockey (2023, 2025 and 2026) and one in ladies’s volleyball (2021).
In July 2024, he signed five-year contract extension that ran by way of June 30, 2029.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.