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First of all, let me be clear I'm not entirely sold on Wisconsin's new athletic director Shawn Eichorst one way or another.
There's positives and negatives to his track record.
He's overflowing with experience and is a Wisconsinite himself, but he also had less-than-stellar results as the athletic director at Miami and Nebraska.
Still, regardless of how this hire plays out for Wisconsin athletics, a lot of the skepticism that Eichorst initially received from Badgers fans and media is misplaced, particularly from the Badgers fans that immediately decried the hire and went full doomsday mode online.
Neither Nebraska nor Miami supporters speak glowingly of Eichorst's time leading their respective programs.
Nebraska fans especially belittle Eichorst, and he has yet to mention his time in Lincoln in any Wisconsin media appearance, while only briefly discussing Miami, patting himself on the back for his role in the hiring of Canes' basketball coach Jim Larranaga.
After his two stints as athletic director, Eichorst spent the last eight years of his career at Texas, first as the chief operating officer and then as the deputy athletics director, the first mate to revered Texas AD Chris Del Conte.
So, just to be clear, Eichorst hasn't held the title of athletic director since 2017, nearly a decade ago.
In almost any other profession, I would say that lack of recent experience in the role is worrisome.
But athletic director for a major, Division-I university? That's a completely different story.
Of course, many of the same skills and knowledge required to thrive as a Power Four athletic director haven't changed in nine years.
But almost everything else about college athletics has.
Athletic director isn't the same job as it was nine years ago On July 1st, 2021, Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) rules were officially introduced, and the world of college football, basketball and every other varsity sport have never been the same since.
From the rapid proliferation of the transfer portal to rosters that cost tens of millions of dollars annually and everything in between, college sports almost couldn't be more different than they were in 2017 when Eichorst was forced out of Lincoln.
This is a completely new landscape we're living in.
And while Eichorst hasn't been an athletic director in nine years, he did spend most of the last eight as second-in-command in one of the most successful athletic departments in the country (Texas has won five of the last six Director's Cups, awarded to the best overall athletic department in the nation).
Thus, my point is twofold.
First of all, Eichorst's reputation as an AD well before the NIL era even began should be taken with a serious grain of salt considering how different college athletics look now.
What's more, he spent most of the NIL era learning under one of the most prominent and successful athletic directors in the country within a top tier athletics department that has largely thrived in the NIL era.
The title of Power Four Athletic Director is such a different job than it was even nine years ago.
While I'm not implying Eichorst should be given the benefit of the doubt he still certainly has to prove himself in Madison those obsessing over his previous stints as an AD in a pre-NIL world are missing the bigger picture.
Badgers ON SI lead editor Seamus Rohrer hails from Brooklyn, NY and is a University of Wisconsin J-School grad.
He's covered the Badgers since 2020 for outlets including BadgerBlitz, The Daily Cardinal and BadgerNotes.
Follow seamus_rohrer.