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Barstool's 'Big Cat' declares state of emergency for Wisconsin Badgers football program

Barstool Sports media personality Dan "Big Cat" Katz is becoming the unofficial spokesperson for Wisconsin Badgers fans, using his platform on FS1 to speak on the state of the football program.
Lorin Cox|
Dan "Big Cat" Katz from Barstool Sports has become an unofficial spokesperson for Wisconsin Badgers fans.
Dan "Big Cat" Katz from Barstool Sports has become an unofficial spokesperson for Wisconsin Badgers fans. | Eric Rueb/Providence Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK

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Barstool Sports media personality Dan "Big Cat" Katz is becoming the unofficial spokesperson for Wisconsin Badgers fans, using his platform on FS1 to speak on the state of the football program.

Unfortunately, he's had to use his voice lately to raise alarms about where things are headed in Madison.

On his national television show "Wake Up Barstool," Katz used part of a segment to declare a state of emergency for Wisconsin football, in the wake of athletic director Chris McIntosh's public letter to fans.

The letter from McIntosh pledged to provide more investment into the football program and seemed to be another public vote of confidence in Luke Fickell.

Katz echoed the voice of many Badgers fans who were not happy with the messaging from the athletic department.

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He thinks McIntosh investing more money into Fickell is only going to extend the decline of the football program and make it even harder to dig out of if they continue to struggle.

Katz said that he knows McIntosh and Fickell personally, and they're good people, but he doesn't believe they're the right people for their respective jobs at Wisconsin.

He's concerned about them doubling down on the current leadership structure of the program that isn't working, and he called on chancellor Jennifer Mnookin to not let things continue to get worse for Badgers football.

Whether anyone in the athletic department will listen to him is a separate question, but at the very least, Katz is amplifying the concerns shared by Wisconsin fans across the country.

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Lorin Cox
LORIN COX

Lorin Cox is the managing editor of Wisconsin Badgers on SI. He has been covering Badgers sports since 2014, when he was an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin. He previously wrote for the Wisconsin State Journal, NBC Sports Chicago and USA Today Sports Media Group, and he is a former analyst for Pro Football Focus.

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