EVENT – The Collapse of Badger Football is not a Football Story

with Ananth Seshadri, UW–Madison

Thursday, October 1
5:00-6:00pm Talk
6:00-7:00pm Reception
Pyle Center – Auditorium

This event is being presented by The Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy (CROWE) and the Department of Economics.

What happened?
After NIL put a price on college talent and the transfer portal made it mobile, Wisconsin recorded its first back-to-back losing seasons since 1991–92.

What did the report find?
Wisconsin funds its biggest earner least, and has for two decades.

• In FY2024, football generated 58 percent of athletic-department revenue but received 24 percent of spending, the Big Ten’s lowest reported share.
• Football’s spending share remained generally below the conference median for roughly twenty years and barely moved after NIL.
• The Varsity Collective launched fourteen months after NIL opened; Wisconsin Athletics’ in-house operation arrived four and a half years later.

The report argues that these are not separate failures. They reflect one institutional habit: the market changed, but the allocation and donor machinery did not change with it.

Why does it matter?

Football is the fast, visible version of a broader university problem. Across higher education in Wisconsin, resources have often followed history even after competitive markets changed.

What should change?

The report calls for greater autonomy with public accountability: budgets that can move, authority to finance projects against reliable program revenue, and durable institutions that can receive and reinvest donor and commercial capital.

The report arrives as Shawn Eichorst begins as athletic director. Wisconsin should give him every chance to succeed by giving him the tools the current market requires.