Wisconsin
Wisconsin Provides Details in the Search for Its Next Athletic Director
The University of Wisconsin has officially turned the page, formally launching a national search for its next Director of Athletics.
In a move that signals a coordinated transition of power, the search is being led by incoming Interim Chancellor Eric Wilcots. Outgoing Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin, whose tenure concludes on May 16, requested Wilcots take the lead to ensure the new AD and the university’s leadership are perfectly aligned from day one.
“Wisconsin Athletics plays a vital role in the life of our campus and our community; its success matters,” says Wilcots. “The director of athletics will lead us into a new era of Wisconsin Athletics during a transformational time in college athletics.”
The Committee
To find the right fit, Wilcots has assembled a nine-member advisory committee that reads like a “Who’s Who” of Wisconsin sports history and professional excellence. The committee is chaired by Lauren Bishop, a former Duke rower and current UW associate professor who serves as a Faculty Athletics Representative to the Big Ten.
The press release revealed the committee members, which features several names that should be familiar to the Wisconsin fanbase:
- Chris Ballard: Current Indianapolis Colts General Manager and former Badger football player (Class of ’93).
- Rob Cramer: UW–Madison’s Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration and a 1992 alumnus.
- Meghan Duggan: Director of Player Development for the New Jersey Devils and legendary former Badger women’s hockey star (Class of ’11).
- Michael Finley: Dallas Mavericks executive and iconic Badger men’s basketball alumnus (Class of ’14).
- Elzie Higginbottom: President of East Lake Management, 1965 track and field alumnus, and member of the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association Board.
- Marija Pientka: Wisconsin’s Senior Associate Athletic Director for Sports Administration and former Badger tennis player (Class of ’95).
- Michael Shannon: Co-Founder of KSL Capital Partners, 1980 alumnus, and member of the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association Board.
- William Smith: Current men’s soccer student-athlete and President of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).
“I’m grateful and humbled to be a part of such an important search at the university, one that will shape the future of Wisconsin Athletics,” Bishop stated. “It is vitally important we hear from a variety of voices on the qualities we should be seeking in a new director.”
Lauren Bishop
What’s at Stake?
The next AD won’t just be overseeing wins and losses. The university made it clear that the new hire must have a “strong emphasis on student-athlete health, wellbeing, academic success, finance and facilities, and fundraising.”
In the age of revenue sharing and multi-million dollar NIL collectives, the Badgers are looking for a visionary who can keep Wisconsin competitive at the highest level without losing the “Wisconsin Way” culture.
The Timeline
CSA Search and Consulting is assisting the search, and the university expects the new Director of Athletics to be in their seat and ready to work by this summer. With a top-20 football recruiting class currently in the works and a basketball program navigating a busy off-season, the timing couldn’t be more critical.
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Reaction to Shawn Eichorst as potentially the next Wisconsin AD
On the Terrace View podcast, John Steppe and Mark Stewart give initial thoughts on reported connection between Shawn Eichorst and open UW AD job.
MADISON – Shawn Eichorst will start as Wisconsin’s athletic director with a higher annual salary than his predecessor.
Eichorst will make an annual salary of $1.6 million along with built-in annual increases and incentives, a university spokesman told the Journal Sentinel.
That is above Chris McIntosh’s $1.5 million annual salary for the 2025-26 academic year. (That consisted of $1 million from the university and $500,000 from the UW Foundation.) McIntosh’s salary was set to increase by $50,000 for each year of his contract, which would have gone through June 30, 2029.
It also is well above Marcus Sedberry’s $875,000 annual salary for the nearly three months when he was interim AD. Sedberry’s salary is set to return to $334,805 “plus any intervening pay adjustments,” according to the offer letter from April.
An open records request from the Journal Sentinel for Eichorst’s contract, which will include more details about the increases and incentives, is pending.
Eichorst previously served as the deputy AD and chief operating officer at Texas for the last eight years. He also was Miami’s AD in 2011-12 and Nebraska’s AD from 2012-17. Before Miami, the Lone Rock native spent five years working with the Badgers under Barry Alvarez.
A 9-year-old child died Tuesday evening after drowning in a western Wisconsin water park.
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office says first responders were called to the Campfire Cove Aqua Park in Rural Balsam Lake, Wisconsin, around 8:15 p.m.
Though they attempted lifesaving measures, the child died at the scene.
The incident is under investigation, the sheriff’s office says.
A missing Wisconsin teen was found safe after mysteriously vanishing from home four years ago as her family had believed she was “lured away.”
Joniah Walker, 19, was safely discovered on May 25, the Milwaukee Police Department told WISN on Tuesday.
Police officials didn’t disclose where Walker was found or provide any further information on the case, including whether the teen was with someone else.
Walker, then 15, had disappeared from her Milwaukee home on June 23, 2022.
Walker’s mother, Tanesha Howard, said she last saw her daughter lying in bed when she left for work the morning of her disappearance, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
“Joniah was lying in bed because she had just finished school. I went in to give her a hug before leaving for work,” Howard told the organization.
The mother and daughter duo had talked on the phone several times throughout the day before Walker “suddenly stopped responding.”
Walker was supposed to meet her father to apply for a summer work permit but failed to arrive at the designated time.
“He called me and said that Joniah wasn’t picking up her phone,” Howard said. “That is when I immediately knew something was wrong. I left work right away.”
A nearby ring camera captured Walker leaving the apartment complex at around 2:30 p.m. in the Brewer’s Hill neighborhood, a mile-and-a-half north of Downtown Milwaukee.
Video footage showed the teen carrying a large green backpack.
It was the last known sighting of Walker until she was reportedly found last month.
Howard believed her daughter had met someone online after she deleted her digital footprint and never returned.
“Somebody stole her…that was my first instinct,” Howard said. “But when I saw that she left with a big backpack that I had never seen, that’s when I knew. I was like, someone lured her away.”
The protective mother issued multiple pleas for her daughter to come home, begging Walker to “call me,” WISN reported in July 2022.
“She is my youngest daughter, so I always call her by ‘baby girl’ because that is exactly who she is, my baby girl,” she said. “She is what I would describe as a perfect daughter. She is angelic, soft spoken and very intelligent.”
Walker was one of the faces of a legislative push by Wisconsin State Rep. Shelia Stubbs (D-Madison) seeking to pass a bill to create a Missing and Murdered African American Women and Girls Task Force, according to Fox6 Now.
Stubbs says she believed Walker was still alive, telling Howard to hold out hope for her daughter’s return.
“I believed Joniah was still living, and I said that to her – I don’t believe Joniah is dead, it’s only a matter of time,” Stubbs told the outlet.
“I think right now, the family needs their privacy,” Stubbs added. “I know there are so many questions, but I think as time goes by when they are ready to tell their story, they will tell it.”
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