(The Center Square) – The Wisconsin Legislature has approved sending $15 million each year to the Universities of Wisconsin for athletics facilities along with creating a sweeping public records exemption related to all spending and revenue within the athletic department.
The Senate approved the bill on a 17-16 vote without discussion.
UW-Madison Athletics Director Chris McIntosh said in committee that the $14.6 million in funding annually to the school’s athletic department for facilities debt is essentially for the athletic department to remain competitive and supporting 23 sports and 600-plus athletes. He said that women’s and Olympic sports were at stake related to the bill.
“In the event that this legislation is not passed, we will be forced to reconcile our revenues with our liabilities, like we always have,” McIntosh told the Senate committee. “And that will come through a series of painful reductions, further emphasis on increasing our revenues.
“And, what I fear is, that through those reductions in support of our sport programs, all of our sport programs, all 23 of our sport programs, we’ll be left in a situation in which it will be difficult to say the least, for us to be competitive in the sports that generate in excess of 80% of the revenues. And it will also be difficult to be competitive.”
UW-Madison athletics operated with a $4.3 million surplus in its most recent annual NCAA financial report released earlier this year covering the financial year that ended in June 2025.
Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, called both the University of Wisconsin name, image and likeness bill and sports wagering bills highly unpopular.
“The public is overwhelmingly opposed to the tribal online gaming bill (AB 601) and UW/NIL bill (AB 1034), but the voters of this state clearly don’t matter to legislative leaders when campaign cash is flowing to grease the skids,” Nass said in a statement. “… Wisconsin Republicans have done little to economically help families and small businesses, but our GOP leaders fought to force taxpayers to begin subsidizing million-dollar payments for UW athletes and further enrich tribal casino operators.
“Simply disgusting.”
The football program accounted for 80% of the program’s revenue, equaling $113.6 million last fiscal year, according to the NCAA report, which showed the football program brought in $72 million in excess during the year.
The Wisconsin Newspaper Association, meanwhile, warned lawmakers and the public that a public records stipulation in the bill could have a sweeping unintended impact that goes well beyond NIL records.
The bill would exempt records related to the “generation, deployment, or allocation of revenue generated by an intercollegiate athletic program.”
