Wisconsin is admittedly in a place where it needs to take huge jumps forward into the future of college football. Players are signing contracts; players are being evaluated, scouted, and signed. Roster pools are thought through and allocated in ways that help the overall growth of the program. Wisconsin brought in a person to help with all that recently: Morroco Brown, the protege of former Indianapolis General Manager Chris Ballard.
Now, Ballard has become available after the Indianapolis Colts are off to a poor season in the NFL. It's now imperative that Wisconsin brings in Ballard to help in the building of a modern roster management system. Even if it's just in a consultant role or in a temporary way. What Ballard can help Wisconsin with is exactly what the Badgers need. His ties with Wisconsin would make him more than willing to help, especially in the meantime.
Colts announced that General Manager Chris Ballard has been relieved. pic.twitter.com/1kQYz6n4e9
— NFL (@NFL) October 19, 2026
Wisconsin football would be foolish not to find former Badger Chris Ballard a role
Related: Luke Fickell calling out Big Ten refs takes nothing away from Wisconsin's main problem
Ballard has already been hanging around the program a ton. His most recent role was being on the committee that helped hire the new Athletic Director, Shawn Eichorst. He was also integral in Wisconsin's decision to hire Morocco Brown in June as the Football General Manager. He's coming to help fix the problems with Wisconsin and he was trained by... Chris Ballard.
Brown spent eight seasons under Ballard as Chief Personnel Executive and Director of College Scouting. He was basically hand-picked by Ballard, and now we might as well bring in Yoda alongside Luke Skywalker to help Wisconsin get to the next level.
Wisconsin can easily make a role for Ballard even if it's just temporary or seasonal. Give Ballard the keys to the office and a fake title like "Senior Consultant," and let him help fix the whole front office side of Wisconsin football.
Luke Fickell has identified this as a major need for Wisconsin, and this was the first year since he became head coach that the Badgers seemed to have adequate funding for the football program and roster management. Yet, it's not quite there; let Ballard get in the kitchen and cook.
This is one of those moments where it may cost money that Wisconsin will have to find, but ultimately help the Badgers for a long time down the road. If Wisconsin wants to be at the top of the Big Ten, these are the type of moves that need to be made.
There may be naysayers who say Ballard wasn't really that successful in his 10 years in the NFL, but getting any sort of boost for Wisconsin is the main first step. Also, you could make a really strong argument that he had his hands tied a bit with the Colts. Bring him home, give him the keys, and let him build out a front office with Brown that the rest of the Big Ten is jealous of.
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