Wisconsin Football Bets Big on NIL With Launch of Badger Athlete Partners
Let’s not sugarcoat it-Wisconsin football is in a rough patch. The Badgers just wrapped up their second straight losing season under head coach Luke Fickell, and with a 17-21 record during his tenure, the pressure is mounting. But instead of hitting the panic button or making reactionary moves, Wisconsin is taking a different approach: building from the inside out, starting with a major play in the evolving world of NIL.
On December 17, athletic director Chris McIntosh unveiled Badger Athlete Partners, a bold new NIL initiative designed to supercharge recruiting and retention. This isn’t just a tweak to the system-it’s a full-on expansion of Wisconsin’s existing NIL infrastructure, and it’s aimed at giving Badger athletes more opportunities to benefit from their name, image, and likeness.
At the heart of the initiative is a partnership with Learfield’s Badger Sports Properties, which will now include five new full-time roles dedicated exclusively to NIL. These staffers will focus on business development, content creation, and activation-essentially helping athletes connect with brands, build their personal platforms, and capitalize on their marketability. Learfield’s Impact NIL services will also be in play, bringing in additional expertise to help scale these efforts.
“This is the next iteration of our NIL and brand infrastructure,” McIntosh said during the announcement, emphasizing that the goal is to meet the needs of both student-athletes and the university’s brand partners. In other words, Wisconsin wants to be a serious player in the NIL space-not just to keep up with the Big Ten heavyweights, but to give its athletes every advantage in a competitive landscape.
And let’s be honest: the timing couldn’t be more critical.
The Badgers are coming off back-to-back sub-.500 seasons-5-7 in 2024, followed by a 4-8 campaign in 2025. That’s the first time since 2001 that Wisconsin has missed a bowl game in consecutive years. For a program that once prided itself on consistency, physicality, and player development, that’s a serious deviation from the norm.
McIntosh has made it clear that the program’s turnaround won’t hinge solely on coaching changes or scheme tweaks. Instead, he’s focused on building a stronger foundation-starting with the roster. That means leaning heavily into the transfer portal and NIL to attract and retain top talent.
“We’re in the midst of an offseason in football and gearing up for the portal,” McIntosh said. “Today’s announcement positions us to be successful in our ability to create the most amount of opportunities for our student-athletes, and I think that will be very appealing for not just our current Badgers, but for future Badgers as well.”
This isn’t just talk. Earlier this fall, Wisconsin made the strategic decision to redirect potential coaching buyout funds toward roster support-signaling a clear shift in priorities.
The goal? To align the Badgers’ investment in football with the top-tier programs in the Big Ten, especially in the NIL era, where talent acquisition is increasingly tied to off-field opportunities.
The launch of Badger Athlete Partners was made possible by an amendment to Wisconsin’s multimedia rights contract with Learfield, approved by the UW Board of Regents on November 25. That same meeting also extended the university’s apparel deal with Under Armour through 2035-another sign that Wisconsin is locking in long-term partnerships to support its athletic programs.
Bottom line: Wisconsin knows it’s at a crossroads. The results on the field haven’t matched expectations, but instead of retreating, the program is investing-aggressively-in its future. NIL is now a core part of that strategy, and with Badger Athlete Partners, Wisconsin is making a clear statement: the days of falling behind in the recruiting arms race are over.
Now, it’s about turning resources into results.