Skip to main content

Badgers enter season with extra $14.6M state taxpayer fund to pay players

When the Wisconsin Badgers take Lambeau Field on Sunday, the players will be earning a salary partially provided by state taxpayers. A law that Gov. Evers signed in April after passing through the Senate (17-16 vote) and Assembly (95-1 vote) has taken effect, which gives UW-Madison $14.6 million per year, and UW-Green Bay and UW-Milwaukee each $200,000 per year. The universities are to use the money to pay off their athletic facilities, but it would then allow them to reallocate the money toward paying players.