Wisconsin News

UW-Madison names Wisconsin native as new athletic director

July 2, 2026

The University of Wisconsin-Madison has named a new leader for Badgers athletics.

Wisconsin native Shawn Eichorst has been appointed to serve as the university’s new athletic director, interim Chancellor Eric Wilcots announced Wednesday.

Eichorst played college football at UW-Whitewater and has served in high-ranking leadership roles for athletics departments at the University of Texas-Austin, the University of Nebraska and the University of Miami.

Eichorst also held executive roles within UW-Madison Athletics from 2006 to 2011. Aside from being a former athlete and administrator, Eichorst holds a law degree and previously taught sports law at Marquette University.

Wilcots said in a statement that the university wanted to find a leader who would build excellence and elevate Badgers athletics.

“We have found that person in Shawn Eichorst, who brings incredible experience, a history of innovation and success at the highest level, and a commitment to student-athletes welfare,” Wilcots stated.

Eichorst will report directly to the chancellor and will be responsible for overseeing all the university’s sports programs.

He will be formally introduced during a future event at Camp Randall Stadium, the home field to Wisconsin Badgers Football.

In a statement, Eichorst called it “an honor” to return home to Wisconsin and to join UW-Madison, saying the state and institution “has meant so much to me and to our family for many years.”

“Wisconsin represents everything that is great about higher education and college athletics — academic and competitive excellence, integrity, and a commitment to serving others,” he said in a statement. “I am deeply grateful to interim Chancellor Wilcots and to the search committee for the confidence and trust that they have placed in me and in my vision for the future of Wisconsin Athletics.”

Todd Milewski, who covers Badgers athletics for the Wisconsin State Journal, said the hiring comes at a “really interesting time in college athletics.” He said athletic directors now face a new college sports landscape where players can be paid and transfer between schools more freely.

“You’re looking at hiring someone different than you maybe would have 10 years ago for a job,” Milewski said. “You need someone who has the business acumen to be on top of things and may be able to predict and look ahead to where things are headed in college athletics.”

Just this year, Gov. Tony Evers signed a bill allowing student-athletes in the state’s university system to be compensated for their name, image and likeness rights.

Eichorst graduated from UW-Whitewater with a business degree in 1990. He also holds a law degree from Marquette University.

He returned to UW-Whitewater and served as director of athletics from 1999 to 2003. He then worked for UW-Madison Athletics for a few years before taking leadership positions with Division I schools in Miami and Nebraska.

After joining the University of Texas-Austin in 2018, where he served as the deputy athletic director and chief operating officer, Eichorst helped the school navigate moving from the Big 12 Conference to the Southeastern Conference.

Eichorst’s tenure in Austin saw the school’s football program re-emerge as a “national power,” earning College Football Playoff Semifinal berths in 2023 and 2024, according to UW-Madison.

That may be welcome news to Badgers Football fans. The team has struggled in recent years and hasn’t won a Big Ten Conference title in more than a decade.

And last season, Milewski said poor performance on the field translated to poor attendance at Camp Randall.

“It’s been a struggle the last few years in even reaching mediocrity as a football program here,” he said. “And so much of Wisconsin’s success financially is tied into the success of the football program.”

On the basketball end, the Badgers have also struggled to make noise in the March Madness tournament in recent years, Milewski said.

But Milewski said women’s sports have remained strong at UW-Madison, with the women’s hockey and volleyball teams being consistent contenders.

“These are programs that can serve as flagships for the success of this university, even though they don’t bring in the numbers — either in attendance or in revenue — that the football, men’s basketball, men’s hockey programs might,” he said.

After the announcement of Eichorst’s hiring Wednesday, the Urban League of Greater Madison sent a letter to the UW-Madison Athletic Department, asking for a formal review of the hiring process for the athletic director position.

“Several aspects of the search raise concern about whether the process adhered to UW–Madison’s established hiring policies, equal-opportunity standards, and required search-and-screen procedures,” the letter reads.

The hiring process involved a nine-member search committee that included a current student-athlete, former varsity letterwinners, alumni and senior university and athletic department leaders, according to UW-Madison.

Search committee chair Lauren Bishop, associate professor of social work and one of the university’s faculty athletics representatives to the Big Ten Conference and NCAA, said the process was “comprehensive and deliberate.”

“We were impressed by the quality of candidates interested in leading our athletics program,” Bishop said in a statement. “Ultimately, Shawn stood out as the right person to lead the Badgers during this transformational era in college athletics.”

Ruben Anthony, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Madison, said the group wants to understand why candidates it considers qualified did not appear to get interviews.

He specifically pointed to UW-Madison interim Athletic Director Marcus Sedberry and Northern Illinois University Athletic Director Sean Frazier, who are both people of color and were both floated as potential candidates ahead of the hiring.

“I think that situations like this have broader implications,” he said. “If they can exclude these qualified individuals from competing for the athletic director position, what are they doing across the board at the university?”

Wilcots, the interim chancellor at UW-Madison, briefly spoke about the issue during a call with with sports outlets, saying the university wanted to “identify the very best candidate, with deep experience and success at the highest levels.”