How much will Shawn Eichorst make as Wisconsin Badgers’ athletic director?

• Shawn Eichorst will begin as Wisconsin’s new athletic director with a $1.6 million annual salary.
• His contract also includes annual increases and incentives, though specific details are not yet public.
• Eichorst’s starting salary is higher than predecessor Chris McIntosh’s 2025-26 salary.

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.