What is expected of an Athletic Director?

gangrene · October 23, 2015

What should really expect of our AD?

The Dynamic Role Of The Modern Day College Athletics Director

Division I – Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) – Non Power 5 Conferences
While the operations they manage might be smaller in terms of total budget and staff, Non-Power 5 conference athletic directors often face an even more daunting set of challenges than their brethren at larger institutions. Like any organization that is not the dominate force in the respective market, their leaders must be adept at dealing with a number of human and financial capital issues that can either spur growth or bring upon their demise if not properly managed. In particular, non-Power 5 conference athletic directors must excel at:
Recruitment, development and retention of quality coaching and administrative talent. While schools in major conferences often have the luxury of paying their coaches millions of dollars, smaller institutions do not. Athletic directors at this level do not only have to have a knack for identifying the next great coaching talent, but must also find ways of keeping them around when they are successful. This also goes for their administrative staff – assistant athletic directors that have proven their worth at smaller institutions are easy pickings for departments with bigger budgets.
Advising their university administration and constituents on how to best navigate through conference realignment. That means being proactive instead of reactive when it comes to best positioning their departments to make a move into a different conference, as well as ascertaining the changing landscape of their current conference and peer institutions that can potentially hurt their own future opportunities. Conference realignment often has a clear set of winners and losers, and athletic directors that are ill prepared to lead their universities through such tumultuous processes can often also be its first casualty.
Managing ever increasing expenses while not having the luxury of tens of millions in media rights dollars coming their way. FBS athletic directors in weaker conferences must find creative ways of raising revenues while dealing with seemingly exponential cost growth, and often must contend with the possibility of cutting programs (e.g. Maryland and Temple) to make their budgets work.

I've highlighted areas where I find our current AD to be performing below expectations.

I think the first section needs no further explanation.

Section two is highlighted because I feel we are poorly prepared for the next round of conference realignment. We have a lot of pieces in place but a lack of winning and low attendance are oftentimes deal breakers in these discussions.

And section 3 is where I find the AD to be most lacking. I've been asking this question for years; who is in charge of UNT's sports marketing strategy and why is it so poorly managed? I work in the marketing industry and have had sponsorship proposals pitched to me by almost every college program you can think of (FBS and FCS), everyone that is EXCEPT UNT. I'm privy to an agreement by a global company that just signed a multi-year, multi-million contract to sponsor college athletics with over 100 universities throughout the country. Guess who's not one of them? North Texas! Guess who is on that list? SMU, UTA, Texas State, UTSA, ULM, La Tech, Rice, UAB, UTEP and the Southland Conference. I'll stop there. See here for a list of schools represented by two of the top sports marketing companies: http://www.imgcollege.com/ http://learfieldsports.com/university-partners/

Edited October 23, 2015 by gangrene

Ben Gooding · October 23, 2015

Win. Everything else falls into place to facilities, to donations, upgrades, coaching salaries, etc. Winning is the key component to building a great athletic program. We are literally doing it ass backwards.

UNTexas · October 23, 2015

To not let football and basketball suck.

Edited October 23, 2015 by UNTexas

Aldo · October 23, 2015

I think this is a fairly meaty post that is being overlooked. Also, I am le tired of the topic and probably my last one for a while.

RV is going to run out of facilities to build. Then what?

Edited October 23, 2015 by Aldo

MeanGreenTexan · October 23, 2015

I think this is a fairly meaty post that is being overlooked. Also, I am le tired of the topic and probably my last one for a while.
RV is going to run out of facilities to build. Then what?

Scales fall off of the eyes of the deceived, and the Mean Green world is made right.