Higher Ed Advisor: Wisconsin Badgers athletic department measures and maintains fiscal resiliency to meet student needs

Welcome to Higher Ed Advisor, the Baker Tilly podcast series where we speak with higher education industry leaders about practical and proactive guidance to help colleges and universities protect and enhance their value.

Institutions across the country had to modify their athletic programs’ approach due to the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure student and staff safety while minimizing the negative fiscal impact from empty bleachers. Adam Barnes, Associate Athletic Director of Business Operations and CFO for University of Wisconsin's (UW) Athletic Department, enlightens us with how his athletic department and finance committee executed a campaign to support student athletes, maintain financial resiliency and accelerate infrastructure and technology investments to provide upgraded facilities for welcoming back fans.

Listen to the podcast as Adam and Baker Tilly’s collegiate athletics specialists, Dave Capitano and Katlyn Andrews, discuss emerging topics and trends in intercollegiate athletics from a fiscal perspective:

• The student and fan experience and expectations
• Donor engagement and corporate sponsorships
• Media rights
• Student athlete recruitment
• Data analytics, including how UW measures student success, uses data for financial and regulatory reporting and tracks name, image and likeness (NIL) involvement

Interested in more podcasts on collegiate athletics topics?