3 guesses why Chris McIntosh suddenly left the Wisconsin Badgers

MADISON, WISCONSIN - SEPTEMBER 17: Director of athletics Chris McIntosh of the Wisconsin Badgers before the game against the New Mexico State Aggies at Camp Randall Stadium on September 17, 2022 in Madison, Wisconsin. (Photo by John Fisher/Getty Images) | Getty Images

For many Wisconsin Badgers fans, Sunday was a day of healing and reflection after a particularly cruel NCAA Hockey title game for the Badgers on Saturday.

But it was interrupted by an absolute shocker: Chris McIntosh was leaving his post as Wisconsin A.D. to immediately take a senior position as a Deputy Commissioner of Strategy with the Big Ten Conference. Interestingly, it’s a job that didn’t even exist until McIntosh was hired.

We weren’t the only ones caught totally off guard. Not one journalist/podcaster who covers the Badgers admitted to knowing this was coming. That likely also applies to coaches like Greg Gard and Luke Fickell, who surely heard the news from Mac himself, but I don’t get the vibe they had much notice.

My suspicion is that this news probably gets dropped last Friday afternoon if Badger Hockey hadn’t been playing for a title Saturday.

So, this all begs the question: why did McIntosh leave now? I have a few ideas.

McIntosh Knew He Was Done at Wisconsin

In light of his up and down tenure, which has mostly been given marginal grades because of the downturn in football, it’s fair to wonder if McIntosh might have sensed he was soon on the way out and got ahead of it.

While this makes some sense, the fact that he had so closely tethered himself to Luke Fickell right down to giving the beleaguered coach both votes of confidence and significantly more NIL money to work with, makes an April departure look a bit odd given that football season is still four months away.

Perhaps this move is a window into what McIntosh really thinks of the chances of the team succeeding (see below), but his own son being an enthusiastic and vocal Fickell 2027 commit would seem to cast some doubt on this.

McIntosh Didn’t Like How The Future Looked

Despite his myriad efforts to crank up Wisconsin Football’s NIL, McIntosh is seeing the same thing the rest of us are with respect to Greg Gard’s basketball portal situation: the Badgers aren’t even marginally competitive in the transfer portal this offseason, and that has cost the team two starters so far, including star John Blackwell.

McIntosh knows the donors and has seen the ledgers. He might be resigned to the fact that there’s nothing on the horizon that will allow Gard (and other coaches) to keep up, even with the state of Wisconsin taxpayers throwing him a lifeline.

This is, by far, the most pessimistic possibility, and I certainly hope it’s not correct.

McIntosh Realized His New Job is a Better/Less Stressful Fit

Occam’s Razor has entered the chat.

While there are possibly elements of the first two reasons I just suggested factoring in, the real answer may simply be that stressful, uncertain times with the school’s top program a huge question mark propelled Mac into the waiting arms of an easier, potentially more lucrative position with the Big Ten.

The ability for him to wake up every morning with a huge burden gone seems rational, especially given the possibility that said burden might have very well crushed him. So, this one is my best guess, with the caveat that elements of the others are factored in.