I'm a fan of Bucky, but not of Bucky's Bailout Bill

If you are one of the five regular readers of this place, you know I bleed Cardinal and White as a two-time graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. And I let out several “YEAH”s as I watched Bucky finish a surprisingly strong regular season in men’s basketball by spoiling Purdue’s Senior Day.

"It's my last go-round in March so I'm trying to make it special." - Nick Boyd

There were plenty of shoutouts and positive vibes for @BadgerMBB after the win over Purdue. pic.twitter.com/hfx7j5NqYz

— CBS Sports College Basketball 🏀 (@CBSSportsCBB) March 7, 2026

That's the good stuff, and why I still love college sports. I still feel pride when I see the alma mater on TV, and I understand how it introduces many others into what I think is the best place in America to get a college education. Be real, you don’t want to be an Ivy League sociopath, and Badger grads have more fun and are much better socially adjusted while still getting nationally strong academics.

I bring this fandom and school pride up as a preface to the discussion of Assembly Bill 1034 in the Wisconsin Legislature – aka “The Bucky Bailout Bill”. As the bill explains, this allows for general taxpayer dollars to pay off the debt of athletic facilities for each of the UW System’s 3 Division 1 programs – with the overwhelming majority going to Bucky’s school.

Under current law, a portion of program revenues that are appropriated for debt service on certain UW System facilities is allocated for the payment of 40 percent of the principal and interest costs for maintenance of UW–Madison intercollegiate athletic facilities. The bill eliminates that allocation and instead appropriates $14,600,000 annually in general purpose revenues to UW–Madison to finance debt service for such maintenance costs.

Additionally, the bill appropriates $200,000 annually in general purpose revenues to finance debt service for maintenance costs of the UW–Milwaukee Klotsche Center and $200,000 annually in general purpose revenues to finance debt service for maintenance costs of the UW–Green Bay soccer complex. (later changed to UWGB’s Phoenix Sports Field and Athletic Complex).

The argument being made by Badger Athletic Director Chris McIntosh is that the $14.6 million Bucky doesn’t have to pay for the facilities would then get plowed back into payments for players, and to ensure funding for the sports that aren’t money-makers on the campus.

When asked in a Senate Committee hearing last week, McIntosh says it is necessary to get this in place before the Legislature goes on its 10-month paid vacation later this month, because Badger Athletics isn’t able to keep up with other Big Ten programs on resources – particularly in football.

“While I appreciate and would prefer a longer timeline, sadly that's not an option for us,” McIntosh said. “If this bill doesn't pass in this session and has to be pushed off into the future, it will continue to put tremendous financial strain on athletics and on the university. We will have our backs up against the wall financially by the time that this would come forward in 2027.”

When Sen. Julian Bradley (R-New Berlin) asked for more clarity on that topic, McIntosh admitted some sports may be on the chopping block.

“Either we will need to reevaluate our expectations on the success of our sports,” McIntosh said, “or we will need to reevaluate how they're supported or how many of them exist.”

In watching the two committee meetings that Mac testified at, he mentioned that football drives around 80% of the Athletic Department’s revenue, and that it requires another $10 million -$15 million to be competitive in football in 2026, on top of the $20.5 million that NCAA schools get to distribute among all its student-athletes.

It wasn’t mentioned, but the fact that Badger football has gone 9-15 overall and 5-13 in the Big Ten over the last 2 years led to declines in game attendance and concessions over that time. And given the panicky emails and phone calls I keep getting, will likely result in a significant decline in season ticket renewals for this Fall.

Other parts of the Bucky Bailout bill specifically mention that student-athletes can’t get NIL payments through the taxpayer funding, nor can they be paid to endorse activities such as tobacco products, vaping, gambling, or substances that are banned for athletic competition….or the law. It also explains that NIL agreements do not make the student-athlete an employee of either a UW System school, and an amendment extended that non-employee status to private colleges and universities in the state (which explains why Marquette University has lobbied in favor of it).

The other key part of the Bucky Bailout Bill is that it allows athletic departments to keep private the details of payments to athletes and their related negotiations.

To protect competitive interests and student privacy, records relating to any of the following in the custody of the board, an institution, or other formally constituted subunit of the board are not subject to public inspection, copying, or disclosure under s. 19.35:

1. Any term or detail of an agreement or proposed agreement for the use of a student-athlete’s name, image, or likeness.

2. Generation, deployment, or allocation of revenue generated by an intercollegiate athletic program that are the subject of reasonable efforts under the circumstances to maintain the secrecy of the records, when competitive reasons require confidentiality.

Which also explains why the bill wants to segregate NIL and athletic department funds from the taxpayer dollars being used to pay off the debt of the facilities. Because if you’re using public dollars to pay these players, you can’t argue that you have to hide what they make for “competitive reasons”.

But I’m sorry, I can’t see how normal people can justify giving $14.6 million in tax dollars for student-athlete payments when the Madison campus announced last October that it would lay off 31 employees and not fill another 156 positions due to budget cuts. In addition, UW-Madison has had $27 million in research grants taken away from it by DOGE dweebs and other Trumpkins this year.

Help them first.

If you’re going to give tax dollars to make UW-Madison more competitive, give it to the researchers, workers and the non-athlete students over trying to bail out an Athletic Department. That's what they do at dumbfuck Southern "schools" where FUTTTBAWWWL is more important than book-learning, and while I want Bucky to win, I don't ever want UW-Madison or the State of Wisconsin to be like those places.