The Collapse of Badger Football Is Not A Football Story

NIL did not break Badger football. It turned on the lights. What followed was not a sudden collapse, but the exposure of a budget built for a slower world. Football generates 58 percent of athletic revenue but receives just 24 percent of athletic spending — the lowest reported share in the Big Ten. That choice came from inside the department. No statute required it. No tuition freeze caused it. No borrowing rule imposed it. Athletics allocates its own money, and it
allocates it this way.