MADISON – Growing up about a 45-mile drive away from Madison in Lone Rock, Shawn Eichorst had a dream.
“You wanted to play at the Field House,” Eichorst said. “You wanted to play in Camp Randall. You wanted to do all those cool things. Well, I never was good enough to have the opportunity to do that.”
Several decades later, he is living out that dream in a different way as he begins his tenure as the Wisconsin Badgers’ athletic director.
“Coming back to Wisconsin is a dream,” Eichorst said. “It’s the destination. It’s the pinnacle, I think, of what we’re doing in college athletics. That’s how much I think about this place and what it’s done for young people.”
Eichorst – previously the deputy AD at Texas and a former AD at Miami and Nebraska – does not have much time to dwell on that dream, though, as he takes over an athletic department with looming questions about the direction of the football program, NIL and other key areas.
Here are four things that stood out from his introductory news conference in a room below the venues where he once dreamed of playing:
Badgers’ new AD has different way of thinking about NIL
Eichorst is new enough in the job that he cannot necessarily give what he would consider a solid answer about Wisconsin’s efforts to grow name, image and likeness revenue for its athletes.
But the incoming UW athletic director – a Marquette Law School alum – said he had “a pretty good understanding of where publicity rights fits in this evolution of where we are by providing additional benefits to our student-athletes.”
Eichorst, who arrived after working in a Texas athletic department that has been very competitive in the NIL landscape, also shared some broader thoughts about NIL and the shifting college athletics landscape as a whole.
“I think you’re going to hear from me a different message maybe than you’ve heard from others about how I think about it because I think about it in the educational setting,” Eichorst said. “I don’t think about it in the professional or employment/employee setting. … I’m going to talk a lot about the value of a scholarship. I’m going to talk a lot about the progressiveness of how we’ve gotten to where we’ve got with less restrictions on our benefits.”
He understands the buzzwords, but he also does not view college athletics as a part of the professional sports model.
“We are not professional,” Eichorst said. “It’s not what we do. We’re in education. Our distinction is education. We tried the amateurism thing for decades, and now we’re in a different era. The courts have spoken about whether antitrust applies to amateurism. So to me, I want to talk to you all about reshaping that conversation about the benefits that we’re providing these young people and the opportunity we’re giving them at a place like Wisconsin.”
Eichorst wants Badgers to be accessible to fans
Eichorst returned to Wisconsin with memories of the Badger Days events during Barry Alvarez’s tenure that brought UW coaches and others to fans across the state.
That accessibility appears to be front of mind again now that the UW-Whitewater alum is the one running the athletic department for the state’s flagship university.
“You have to be accessible,” Eichorst said. “If you’re going to talk the talk, you got to walk the walk. This is a special place, and they want to know who you are. And we should want to engage in that regard. I want folks to feel like, not only me, but all of us are accessible and approachable.”
What does first-year success look like for Eichorst?
The Badgers’ win-loss records on the field and on the court are the most obvious factors for whether the Eichorst era ultimately is a success. The football program’s record obviously is one of the things that fans may remember about predecessor Chris McIntosh’s tenure.
It will take some time for Eichorst’s impact on the win-loss records to be evident as he acclimates to the new job. After all, he is inheriting McIntosh’s administration and head coaches, and each program built their 2026-27 roster before his arrival.
But in the meantime, Eichorst’s own way of measuring what a successful first year looks like boils down to relationship-building and gaining a deeper understanding of UW athletics.
“A successful first year for me is to really understand who we are and where we are, and then we can start thinking about moving forward,” Eichorst said. “Of course, we’re going to move quicker along the way, but if you ask me, that would be a successful first year to really get a solid footing on what’s going on at Wisconsin.”
While Eichorst has obvious familiarity with Wisconsin from his time working under Alvarez, much has changed since he left UW in 2011 for his first power-conference AD opportunity.
“I don’t want to assume anything,” Eichorst said. “I want to revisit everything and anything. For me, it’s having deep relationships, not only within the athletic department, but more importantly across the aisle in academics. I’m a big collaborator. … I really want to get to know our stakeholders, our ticket-holders, our donors, our student-athletes, our head coaches.”
Eichorst encouraged by conversations with Luke Fickell
One of Eichorst’s biggest decisions in his first year could center around Luke Fickell’s status – or any other changes with the football program – if the Badgers do not live up to expectations in 2026.
During his introductory news conference, Eichorst did not publicly dictate any specific expectations for Fickell’s fourth season at the helm but said he has been “so encouraged” in his early conversations with Fickell.
“Obviously he’s won every place he’s been,” Eichorst said. “My expectation is more of me than him, meaning I need to pour into him, learn more about his program, how he has things set up, how his athletes are taken care of, how we’re supporting that endeavor, and then we can figure out as we move along what that might look like.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin AD Shawn Eichorst shares unique NIL mindset, first-year goal
Reporting by John Steppe, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By John Steppe, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
