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    Barry Alvarez Reportedly Retiring as Wisconsin AD; Timeline Uncertain

    Blake SchusterSenior Analyst IIIMarch 27, 2021

    FILE - In this Sept. 12, 2009, filep hoto, Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez look on from the sidelines during an NCAA football game in Madison, Wis. Thirty years after he finished his playing career at Nebraska, Alvarez went to Wisconsin and built the Badgers' program in the image of the Cornhuskers. No one's more excited than Alvarez, now Wisconsin's athletic director, about Nebraska playing its inaugural Big Ten game on the Badgers' field on Saturday. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)
    Morry Gash/Associated Press

    University of Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez will retire, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Jeff Potrykus reported Saturday (h/t Stadium's Brett McMurphy). No timeline exists for the 74-year-old's exit.

    Brett McMurphy @Brett_McMurphy

    Wisconsin AD Barry Alvarez has decided to retire, although timeline not definite yet, sources told @Stadium. 1st reported by @jaypo1961

    Alvarez became the Badgers' athletic director in 2004 after a 15-year stint as the school's head football coach. He's twice stepped in as interim head coach during his tenure as AD, going 119-74-4 overall and earning an induction into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2010. 

    The Badgers won three Rose Bowls (1993, 1998 1999) with Alvarez as head coach. Under his watch as AD, Wisconsin took one men's ice hockey championship (2006) and six women's ice hockey titles (2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2019, 2021) along with making two men's basketball Final Four appearances (2014, 2015), a women's soccer Sweet 16 (2017) showing and two national title game appearances in women's volleyball (2013, 2019). 

    The Pennsylvania native also served on the inaugural College Football Playoff selection committee in 2014 and was honored with a statue outside Camp Randall Stadium in 2006. 

    While athletic director, Alvarez hired Greg Gard to coach men's basketball, Tony Granato as men's ice hockey coach and Bret Bielema, Gary Andersen and Paul Chryst as football coach.

    The athletic success at Wisconsin has become synonymous with Alvarez, and his departure will leave a massive hole both in Madison and college sports overall. 

    Barry Alvarez Reportedly Retiring as Wisconsin AD; Timeline Uncertain
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    Potrykus reported Wisconsin's deputy athletic director, Chris McIntosh, has been "groomed" to succeed Alvarez, with the outgoing AD expected to support McIntosh's promotion. 

    McIntosh is a 1999 All-American offensive tackle who played under Alvarez. After two years in the NFL with the Seattle Seahawks—who drafted him No. 22 overall in 2000—McIntosh returned to Madison in 2014 and currently oversees day-to-day operations of the athletic department.