A bit of news came out of Madison yesterday that former Badger football great Chris McIntosh would be getting a promotion to deputy Athletic Director this Fall. If you connect the dots, Barry Alvarez appears ready to name his successor at Wisconsin, and it appears that his former player will be taking over the role for him at some future date. This is a smart move by Badgers athletic department to get him prepped for a major role in the not-so-distant future.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has been all over this story from the start. They reported in 2016 that this was a real possibility, and it appears it’s coming to fruition. Alvarez still has three years left on his deal, but that seems like a perfect amount of time to show McIntosh the ropes before leaving Wisconsin athletics for good. Unless Alvarez needs to leave before that for a non-sports reason, I don’t believe this is something that’s going to happen overnight.

It’s not surprising to me that Barry would go with a former player and a Wisconsin native for the next Athletic Director. As we know, Alvarez believes that he’s the reason Wisconsin athletics had their turnaround and wants to have everything to do with it succeeding in the future leaving a major legacy. If McIntosh were to take over, the football and basketball coaches plus the Athletic Director would all be Wisconsin natives. Hard for them to leave when it’s home showing there are still some Gary Andersen wounds left.

I would expect this announcement in the near future. I don’t think it needs to be before football season unless the takeover is happening in a year. After all, it’s Alvarez’s world in Madison and everyone else is living in it.

Charlie.