Rethinking How Athletic Directors are Studied, Prepared, and Hired

Reaction to 4 AD Hires and 3 AD Openings

According to the HEA D1 AD Hiring Tracker there are 15 available D1 athletic director jobs. Today I will discuss the openings at Toledo, San Francisco, and Kentucky. First, I want to give a reaction to four recent AD hires at New Mexico, Charlotte, Syracuse, and Oklahoma.

New Mexico – Ryan Berryman

The perfect and only decision to make, IMO. I studied this opening for 12 hours when I was on my trip to Michigan State and Western Michigan and did a 15-minute video explaining why I thought Ryan Berryman would be the permanent AD for the Lobos. Berryman grew up in Albuquerque and has 3 degrees from UNM. He was a student manager for men’s basketball before beginning his climb in the Lobos athletic department, which included being there during Eddie Nunez’s stabile leadership and then being convinced by Fernando Lovo to come back after a short stint at Washington as the deputy AD. More impressive and telling when you’re trying to win over a president and board, Berryman was a state-appointed student regent for the Board of Regents. UNM has high hopes for the future trajectory of their school and needed a leader that would not use the job as a stepping stone to a Power 4 school like Fernando Lovo did. Instead, Berryman could now be the leader that turns the job into a Power 4 school.

Charlotte – Kevin White

I offered up three names for the Charlotte AD search in a video before it was announced and my top prediction was then-Clemson AD Kevin White. An overwhelming majority of G6 AD hires since 2024 were FBS Deputy ADs, per my HEA database. If White wanted to become an AD sometime soon then it wasn’t going to be at Clemson after Graham Neff didn’t leave for the Georgia Tech opening. Clemson is seen as an innovative athletic department and Charlotte’s chancellor was clearly looking for a modern approach to athletics by firing Mike Hill and going with TurnkeyZRG as the search firm. White likely (and rightfully) got the benefit from being the number two person at Clemson and he also had a degree from UNC Chapel Hill, which is in the same system as UNC Charlotte. Being the Deputy AD at a P4 school gives you a good opportunity to pick-and-choose what jobs you take, which may have caused some surprise why he went for the Charlotte job. However, if you’ve followed HEA for a while then you know I’ve been very bullish on Charlotte as being a contender for a P4 invite the next time we see major realignment shift (along with USF). The campus is incredible and well over 30,000 students attend the large urban campus just outside of vibrant Downtown Charlotte.

Syracuse – Bryan Blair

I was kicking myself when I read in the ticker that Bryan Blair was being targeted as the AD, only because I missed it, sort of anyways. I wrote Bryan’s name (I promise!) in my notebook of 5 names to watch, but I couldn’t access the buyout details of his contract that was extended shortly after the new president was hired, so I was cautious to mention his name since I knew he was so happy at Toledo from my recent shadow visit with him at a football game. The reality is Bryan Blair is one of the best ADs in the country and Syracuse deserves a lot of credit on landing him and avoiding any outside pressure to hire a person with Syracuse ties.

I had Boise State’s Jeramiah Dickey and UConn’s David Benedict as the two sitting FBS ADs that I thought would be a great fit at Syracuse. Dickey fits a similar profile as Blair in that he’s seen as innovative and leading a successful athletic department with limited resources. Dickey also is without a permanent president right now and that triggered a huge cut in his contract buyout if he were to leave for another job. It seemed like now might be the opportunity to take on a new challenge and let the next AD usher the Broncos into the redeveloped Pac-12. I’m happy for the Broncos that he’s staying because I also think he is a huge asset and voice for all the Group of 6 schools. Benedict was more about finding a new challenge after 10 years of successful basketball national championship programs and revitalizing UConn football with the hire of recently-departed Jim Mora Jr. under his watch. Looking back, there were common qualities and situations in both Dickey and Benedict that Blair has, too, which makes me think I had a good idea of what Syracuse was looking for in their next AD. For example, in my video I mentioned how Dickey being placed by CSA at Boise State made me think he would end up at Syracuse, and Blair was placed at Toledo by CSA.

Oklahoma – Roger Denny

Roger Denny was the Deputy AD for the Fighting Illini and likely surprised everyone in the industry when he became the AD at Oklahoma. Jake Rosenberg with his new company, The Athlete Group (TAG), led the search and seemed surprised himself that the AD hire was someone within the current ecosystem of college athletics, as he mentioned in a recent Sportico article. I did not do a prediction for this because it didn’t seem to have a timeline (ended up lasting 6 months) and I was almost certain it would be an outsider hire. I like that TAG and OU seemed to take a different approach than TurnkeyZRG in the failed Rutgers search, who seemed to be all-in on hiring an outside industry person until the new president came in from the LSU presidency and quickly hired then-LSU Deputy AD/COO Keli Zinn, which so far seems like a great decision. Instead, TAG and OU looked from the outside in and placed several months on framing the profile of the position first. Rosenberg wrote on LinkedIn about the process and it is essentially, to a smaller extent given my resources, how I plan on doing searches, too. I do study AD openings on my own when I try to put myself in the shoes of what I think a committee or president/board should do and think the TAG approach is the best model moving forward for certain jobs and situations.

Toledo

I haven’t studied this position enough yet to make a complete search hypothesis, but for fun I will share some data and mention a name to watch. HEA data would suggest Toledo will more than likely hire either a P4 Deputy AD or a sitting FCS AD. Since January 2024, there have been 20 FBS AD hires outside of the P4 schools. Nine of those hires were FBS deputies, seven of which came from P4 schools. Four of the 20 hires were sitting FCS athletic directors, including Akron AD Andrew Goodrich in the MAC.

Dr. Connor Whelan, Toledo Deputy AD/CRO, would be on my shortlist of people to give full consideration for the AD job. I got to speak with Whelan at the Toledo/NIU football game and, more importantly for my line of work, watched him interact with fans, sponsors, and legislators at the game. He has the academic credentials that would satisfy the faculty and the creative energy and charisma to keep the fans and supporters happy. And they would be able to keep the momentum going that Blair had started. Whelan was also a MAC athlete at Kent State. Another thing Whelan fits is the recent trend of hiring young ADs like we’ve seen at Austin Peay State, UNM, New Mexico State, and UL-Monroe. It’s been reported that Parker is leading the search, which makes sense given that Syracuse used CSA, who dislodged Blair from the Rockets.

San Francisco

CollegeAD reported the AD search will be wrapped up at end of the month. No reported search firm being used by the private school. It feels like given the situation this will be an interim to permanent placement. Stephanie Shrieve-Hawkins was hired by the now-deceased previous AD, Larry Williams, and it doesn’t seem like changing leadership is necessary when you have Shrieve-Hawkins, a Bay Area native and former AD at San Francisco State (D2), on staff leading the Dons. I would be surprised if anyone else gets this job. The only current D1 AD with a USF degree is Richard Duran of Incarnate Word, who earned his master’s degree at USF. Duran has been at UIW since 2017 and the AD since 2020. Despite being a California native, Duran was a collegiate football player and I don’t know that he would want to return to a non-football school. This just seems like a process that will end with Stephanie Shrieve-Hawkins being named the permanent AD.

Kentucky

If I’m Kentucky’s president or board chair, I’m calling Jake Rosenberg about doing its search, too. The Mitch Barnhart situation is similar to Joe Castiglione at Oklahoma as both former ADs are sticking around in new roles. I suspect Kentucky will also look for the modern AD and not just the next Mitch Barnhart.

Since January 2024, there have been 11 AD hires at Big Ten and SEC schools. How many of those hires do you think were sitting ADs? Eight. The only ones that weren’t were Maryland’s James Smith, Rutgers’ Keli Zinn (from an SEC school) and Oklahoma’s Roger Denny (from a B1G school). I will do some digging on this opening in the coming weeks and make an educated guess on the profile of the final candidate pool. HEA data suggests it will most likely be a sitting AD, but Rutgers and Oklahoma going with P4 deputies cannot be ignored, either.

There have been several names mentioned for Barnhart’s replacement, most notably Oregon AD Rob Mullens and DePaul AD DeWayne Peevy. Mullens signed an extension this past summer that keeps him tied to Oregon through the 2032-33 academic year and did so knowing full and well that Barnhart would retire sometime soon, so I’m assuming there isn’t any interest. Mullens was one of the first guests I ever had on Higher Ed Athletics (you can only find that audio on AthleticDirectorU) and he seemed to look at his UK experience as a great moment in time, but made it clear he planned to make Oregon his final stop. Peevy, who I also had on the show early in his DePaul tenure, would be an interesting hire because he had such a long and somewhat recent tenure with Barnhart. However, DePaul is very different than Kentucky, obviously, with no football, a big city, and a struggling basketball program. The same leadership at UK is in place from when Peevy left for DePaul, but lots has changed in the SEC since he left UK and it may just not be a fit anymore. Other names I saw on a Kentucky On3 site mentioned Alabama AD Greg Byrne, Minnesota AD Mark Coyle and Florida AD Scott Stricklin. You have to ask yourself why any of those people would leave for the Kentucky job right now based on their current spots, their age, and Barnhart still being on campus. I don’t see anyone on the current staff being the next AD at UK, either. I have started working privately on my shortlist of who I think Kentucky should pursue.

Final Thoughts

I have been studying athletic directors since 2019 when I started Higher Ed Athletics. My dissertation right now is on the evolving role of the FBS AD from the perspective of university presidents. AD jobs are changing. Prospective candidates need to pay attention to institutional fit and themes in AD hires more than they ever had. I recommend some current D1 administrators start looking at open D2 and D3 AD jobs, too, if they feel like there is a good institutional and regional fit.

HEA is turning into a one-person executive search business and, yes, I know exactly how ridiculous that probably seems to many people in the industry, which is very motivating to me. Please know this has been the plan for over 5 years now and why I invested so heavily in a higher education doctorate, 50+ hours of AD interview content, and strategically accepted a job working for a B1G university president to better understand their jobs. I know it will take some time for college presidents to give HEA a shot, but building the business in public is the business development approach I’ve decided to do. In future active searches I will be fully confidential and put my 10+ year compliance administrator hat back on when it comes to privacy.

As the search business slowly grows here’s how you can help HEA:


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