​MADISON, Wis. (AP) — New Wisconsin athletic director Shawn Eichorst, who spent the past eight years at Texas, believes his new job and his past experiences share a number of common ground. Both Wisconsin and Texas are well-regarded research universities based in state capitals, members of major conferences, and carrying comparable enrollment figures. Yet Eichorst also highlighted one notable distinction between the two institutions.
“There’s swag at Texas, right?” Eichorst said Tuesday during his introductory news conference. “There are 30 million people in Texas. We’ve got swagger too, but we mix it with a little humility. We need to lift our shoulders, we need to feel good about what we’re doing.”
Wisconsin could gain more of that Texas swagger if its football program rebounds to the heights it reached the last time Eichorst worked in Madison. Eichorst, who most recently served as deputy athletic director at Texas, accepted a five-year contract worth $1.6 million per year, exclusive of incentives. He was brought aboard roughly two and a half months after Chris McIntosh left Wisconsin to become the Big Ten’s deputy commissioner for strategy.
Eichorst previously worked at Wisconsin from 2006 to 2011 under AD Barry Alvarez, during Bret Bielema’s tenure as football coach. He then moved on to lead as athletic director at Miami (2011–12) and Nebraska (2012–17) before Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte recruited him in 2018.
He returns to Wisconsin at a time when the Badgers have just endured back-to-back losing seasons on the football field, a striking reversal for a program that had logged 22 straight winning seasons from 2002 through 2023. Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell has posted a 17-21 record since taking over after leaving Cincinnati, where he guided the program to a 53-10 mark with a College Football Playoff appearance in his final five seasons there.
Eichorst acknowledged he has not previously collaborated with Fickell, but he said he is encouraged by their early conversations. “Obviously he’s won everywhere he’s been,” Eichorst noted. “My expectation is more about me than him, meaning I need to invest in him, learn more about his program, how he has things set up, how his athletes are supported, how we’re backing that effort. And as we move forward, we’ll determine what that collaboration looks like.”
The downturn in football underlined the reasons Eichorst’s career had its stumbles as an athletic director. He made the decision to fire Nebraska coach Bo Pelini in 2014 and hired Mike Riley, who had compiled a 93-80 record in 14 seasons at Oregon State. Eichorst’s tenure at Nebraska came to an end after a disappointing start to the 2017 season, and Riley’s tenure concluded at the end of that year following a 19-19 record in three seasons.
When Eichorst’s appointment was announced last week, he spoke about the growth he has undergone since the Nebraska chapter. Wisconsin’s interim chancellor, Eric Wilcots, led the search and has highlighted Eichorst’s accomplishments at Texas, including that program’s success in the Learfield Directors’ Cup all-sports standings, where Texas has ranked among the top five to top nine in recent years. Texas has topped the Directors’ Cup standings in multiple recent years, underscoring the level of success Eichorst will be tasked with emulating as he guides Wisconsin’s broader athletic portfolio.
In sum, Eichorst arrives with a track record of experience across major programs, a recognition of the pressures and expectations in a high-profile athletic department, and a vision to blend the swagger and tradition of Wisconsin with the expansive reach and confidence he observed at Texas. As he prepares to help steer Wisconsin toward a return to consistent football success and continued excellence across sports, his leadership will be tested by the same questions that have defined his career: can the Badgers recapture their winning ways and build a sustained culture of achievement?