Higher Ed Athletics

Dr. Andrew Goodrich starts the conversation discussing how the similarities of being an FCS AD (previously at Gardner-Webb) outnumber the differences of being an FBS AD despite the incredibly low number of FBS ADs coming from that background. He then walks through the Akron AD search process being an active AD at the time. Goodrich talks about the decision to pursue a doctorate in higher education...

Danny White joins HEA to talk alignment with Chancellor Plowman, including how they are both builders and change agents. The conversation first talks about his doctorate degree in higher education as the dissertation design is similar to mine. We then jump back into the concept of collective bargaining in college athletics. White explains his philosophy of building a strong administrative team and...

To kick off 2026, I react to recent AD hires at Baylor, Colorado and ULM, and give my thoughts on several openings, including at Oklahoma, Cal, Charlotte, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Washington State, Delaware, New Orleans, Wagner and Austin Peay State. I also share why I don't expect San Francisco to do a search. Watch and subscribe on YouTube : 1:30 Baylor Reaction 2:50 California Reaction to...

AD Vantage Founder and CEO Tanner Stump walks me through how to hire a Head Coach with their platform. From a program comparison report and looking at several coaching metrics to creating my own watch list that updates metrics every day, come with us as I hire the next great women's volleyball head coach. AD Vantage empowers athletic directors with comprehensive staff data, performance analyti...

Sean Frazier joins to talk about Northern Illinois athletics and the future of the AD position in college athletics. Frazier starts the conversation explaining the strategy behind moving football to the Mountain West while keeping other sports regional with the Horizon League. Will they miss MACtion weeknight games? Sean expresses his concern about outsiders coming into the profession without havi...

Julie Roe Lach is the commissioner of the Horizon League for a few more weeks before transitioning into an Executive VP position with Pacers Sports & Entertainment. The conversation begins with addressing that job change and then giving her Mount Rushmore of Horizon memories. We talk about the congressional coalition known as the Tenacious Ten and how the conferences are working together to ke...

Amy Folan joins Higher Ed Athletics for a discussion about fundraising as well as her lessons learned and career journey from the Texas Longhorns to CMU. Folan shares her thought process behind the hiring of a new football coach this past offseason in Matt Drinkall who has now led the Chippewas to a bowl berth in his first year. The conversation shifts to creative new revenue strategies her depart...

Power 4 Athletic Director jobs don’t open too often. Baylor is one of only 4 current Power AD jobs open, with the others being Cal, Oklahoma and Colorado. This is the only one that appears to be a quick hire because it was unexpected. There have been 21 Power AD hires since 2024 with 8 of those hires coming from sitting Power ADs and 5 from deputy AD positions at Power schools. Below are many name...

Justin Sell's AD tree includes Montana State's Leon Costello, Indiana State's Nathan Christensen, and Ohio's Slade Larscheid. This conversation starts with Sell breaking down each of their journeys to the AD chair and what he saw in them. Sell goes into depth on how to run a head coach search and what he looks for in candidates and provides a timeline and stresses anticipation. We...

I believe aspiring athletic directors need to know more about the role of college presidents and what it means to be a member of the cabinet. I asked Kent State VP & University Secretary Dr. Char Reed to talk to me about her role as the chief of staff to the president. Reed explains why she is heavily involved in athletic director hires and gives some insight into the search that ultimately br...

Grand Canyon University is a large private Christian University in Phoenix and they are known for their men's basketball home environment as the Havocs. Those in the industry know GCU has joined the Mountain West and Boggs gives details on the decision and the ROI of the move. We talk about her process of a head coaching hire from A-Z and how she evaluates her head coaches, too. GCU has recent...

I give my thoughts and predictions on the Charlotte and Austin Peay State AD openings. Charlotte is in a strong position as an institution and athletic department if they can get football to be a winner in the Queen City. President Licari at APSU did an interview with CSA Search & Consulting's Drew Turner and provided lots of clues for what he's looking for in the next Govs AD - I reac...

Rob Higgins is new on the job but you would never know that if you visited USF like I did this week. He's a former ball boy and alumnus. You cannot use the word "potential" anymore around USF. Instead, I think the Bulls have arrived and USF is set to be the next power conference school. This is the most aligned institution I have ever studied and a plan is in place to win the buildin...

Jim Dries, CEO of PILYTIX , joined HEA to talk about the increased donor fatigue in the world of college athletics right now, and why coaching buyouts will probably make fatigue worse. He explains why just throwing more fundraisers at the solution is not necessarily the right play. Instead, athletic departments need to rethink their qualified donor pool and use the data they probably are already c...

There have been 245 D1 AD hires at 211 unique institutions since January 2020. The Deputy AD position is by far the most popular immediately prior job with 84 of those hires and another 70 were previous ADs moving to a different chair. In this video I update my thoughts on the remaining 15 D1 AD jobs still available after a handful of hires were made in the back half of September. Bookmark my D1 A...

There were plenty of clues about institutional alignment in the Rob Higgins hire at USF. I break down why I accurately predicted him getting the job months in advance as a case study in institutional fit and how boards/presidents operate. College athletics is a copycat industry. The Danny White AD tree branches continue with Utah State's hire of Cameron Walker. I explain why more presidents will h...

Maisha Kelly joins Higher Ed Athletics for a conversation about Drexel athletics in a post-House era. We talk about her start as a 6th grade teacher and how she built her career over time in 10 years at Bucknell leading to becoming Drexel's AD. Kelly is working with a new president and she shares how the department put together a 25-page document to help onboard him to the current and future p...

Jason Penry absolutely lights up when you ask him to talk about fundraising.. A seasoned administrator in both athletics and university administration, Penry now spends his time consulting and teaching. He agreed to join me for a deep-dive episode about the topic of fundraising. I asked Penry what he would tell someone that has limited or no experience in fundraising and is on the track to be an A...

Rutgers president called an audible to land Keli Zinn and Stanford's president recruits their "unicorn candidate" in former Nike CEO John Donahoe. In this episode, I share my thoughts and explain what both searches clearly had in common.

In this episode I break down my thoughts and predictions for every D1 athletic director opening as of July 31st (and about 20 minutes before Stanford chose their AD). This is the best way to force myself to put in the effort to study institutional situations and see how I did after the AD hires are announced. See the timestamps/chapters for the opening(s) you're most curious about. If you know...

This is a breakdown of Power, FBS, FCS and I-AAA athletic director hires since 2020 and a closer look at the AD hires since 2024. Since beginning my doctorate program in 2020, I’ve been closely tracking D1 athletic director hires, compiling data and identifying patterns. What started as a research interest has grown into a deeper focus on the AD position itself—and more recently, on the college pr...

Marshall reportedly brought 5 AD candidates to campus last week, including 4 sitting ADs and a P4 executive via CollegeAD. The Rutgers search nears 1 calendar year. Reaction to Ryan Alpert and President Cabrera's press conference. Utah State is bringing in Sandy Barbour and, I think, Huron Consulting. Is this the next popular play call for interim presidents since we have so many recently reti...

The AD Rundown is me sharing the thoughts and notes of what I studied in the last week. This is specifically athletic director news and interviews from various sources. Longest Tenure D1 ADs Cal Co-AD Model - Brilliant or Indecision? Upcoming Stanford AD Decision The Gene Smith-Ross Bjork Transition Playbook that UNC and Oklahoma are Deploying Danny White: Collective Bargaining Proposal, SBJ AD of...

This Marshall AD opening seems like the hardest to predict candidates, or at least where they will come from outside of one name: Jeff O’Malley. The VP/AD at Lamar University, O’Malley served as a top administrator at Marshall Athletics for 20 years and was the interim AD during Covid-19 and the move to the Sun Belt Conference before Spears was ultimately hired instead. O’Malley accepted the posit...

Here are my thoughts on the different candidate types and potential names for the AD opening at Georgia Tech. Predictions are new for me, but I figured I’d lay out my thought process and end with a prediction to see if I at least had the candidate type or position profile correct. Please note I have not spoken to anyone at all about these names – they’re all based on my observations and frameworks...