Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal: Avg AD Tenure 6.8 Yrs

[FirefightnRick]

http://m.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2015/06/15/In-Depth/AD-lead-in.aspx?

 

Quote

The rapid rate of turnover is far from finished. There are 17 more AD jobs waiting to be filled, from high-profile positions at Syracuse and Michigan to one of the three vacancies in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.

The amount of job-hopping among ADs is reaching near-epidemic levels. The average tenure in the Western Athletic Conference is 2.8 years. In The American it’s 3.0 years and 3.3 years in the Sun Belt. In fact, 18 of the 32 conferences in Division I have welcomed a new AD into their league this year. The average tenure of ADs overall is 6.8 years......

The high rate of turnover was just one of the findings in SportsBusiness Journal’s exhaustive study on what it’s like to be an athletic director in 2015, which is outlined in the following pages....

But the average tenure and turnover in these jobs is what jumped off the page. ADs had a range of reasons why they think this is the new normal. Presidents change jobs a lot too, and many times they want to hire their own AD....

 

Rick
 

Edited February 25, 2016 by FirefightnRick

[DeepGreen]

Uh, oh.  This thread should skyrocket to popularity pretty quick.

[UNTFan23]

Average tenure in CUSA is 8.1 years.

I thought this comment was rather amusing:

Quote

“Some people think these are glamorous jobs, but they’re really, really difficult,” said Todd Turner, a former AD at Connecticut, North Carolina State, Vanderbilt and Washington who now conducts searches for ADs and coaches. “It’s a great job, but it’s hard stuff. You’re managing a very large group of people and the job is very, very public. Everybody’s in your business and most of them think they can do it better.”

 

[FirefightnRick]

7 minutes ago, UNTFan23 said:

 

I thought this comment was rather amusing:

 

...and just as amusing is it's a quote from a FORMER athletic director.

 

Rick

Edited February 25, 2016 by FirefightnRick

[meangreendork]

Oh, I certainly don't think I can do the job of AD better.

But I know for damn sure RV can do better. But since he refuses to do so, I know UNT can do better than RV.

[UNTFan23]

It doesn't say why he left the schools he was an Athletic Director. That also doesn't take away from his quote.  He seems to be doing fine as the founder and CEO of his own search firm.  As a consultant, I bet he still makes a lot more money than the vast majority of people on this message board, and with less stress.

[Quoner]

1 hour ago, UNTFan23 said:

Average tenure in CUSA is 8.1 years.

I thought this comment was rather amusing:

 

I wonder what inflates that average by a few years.

EDIT: Doing the math on a piece of paper lazily, looks like without RV, the average is 6.37

 

Edited February 25, 2016 by Quoner
MAFF!

[Greenrex]

Maybe we should consider the the University of Michigan's model and leave the position open.

 

Edited February 25, 2016 by Greenrex

[FirefightnRick]

47 minutes ago, UNTFan23 said:

It doesn't say why he left the schools he was an Athletic Director. That also doesn't take away from his quote.  He seems to be doing fine as the founder and CEO of his own search firm.  As a consultant, I bet he still makes a lot more money than the vast majority of people on this message board, and with less stress.

He resigned his last position at Washington after four years of losing when a prominent lawyer pledged $200k in scholarship money if Turner and head football coach Tyrone Willingham were fired after an 0-12 season.  And as one blogger points out in the linked article below he was at Vanderbilt 7 years before that and considered as partly responsible for running NC States' program into the ground before that.

http://www.statefansnation.com/2007/12/toddy-turner-fired-again-call-it-a-resignation-if-you-want/

So naturally Turner doesn't care for the demand for success that the job brings.  Still, don't think Turner isn't enjoying the turnover in his new career, after all since he's regularly cashing in on it.   He probably curses the North Texas's of the world with each passing day.

 

Rick

[NorthTexan95]

Wait a minute ... I think we're missing the big picture here ... AD's can get fired !!!  Schools can make a chance for such reasons as declining attendance and not wining.  

Quick!  Someone forward that link to our BOR !!! 

[drex]

Burn out , burn out, burn out.  Whether it is confirmed or not by RV, there has to be burn out.  Believe me, I know the feeling.

[FirefightnRick]

9 minutes ago, drex said:

Burn out , burn out, burn out.  Whether it is confirmed or not by RV, there has to be burn out.  Believe me, I know the feeling.

True, but Millions of dollars earned over 15 years cools a lot of burning I would think, right?

 

Rick

[Ben Gooding]

Yeah, but at North Texas you can be AD and winning can be nonexistent along with attendance and you can keep your job for 15+ years. This drum continue to beat and beat and beat and beat and beat and beat...and guess what...even if Littrell is a good hire (which I am hoping he is) he will be gone in maximum 3 years and we will be rolling the dice yet again. Rick needs to hang it up. Go back to Mississippi and do whatever he was doing before he stumbled onto North Texas. Of course, thank you for your contributions to North Texas athletics but we desperately need to more in a different direction. And the beat goes on...

[UNT90]

11 hours ago, Quoner said:

I wonder what inflates that average by a few years.

EDIT: Doing the math on a piece of paper lazily, looks like without RV, the average is 6.37

 

Lol. 

But UNT is stable. Terrible, but terribly stable.

Edited February 26, 2016 by UNT90

[UNTexas]

I appears RV has the same job security as a federal judge. 

[UNTLifer]

RV contends he is just an over-achiever.

[Cerebus]

 

Edited February 26, 2016 by Cerebus

[NTXCoog]

While some ADs get fired, others leave for higher profile jobs.  For example, Mack Rhoades left Akron for Houston after only 3 years.  He left Houston for Mizzou right at the average AD tenure.

If RV did have the success with team results, facilities, and fundraising that caused him to get offers from P5 schools for more money, would he stay loyal to UNT or would he be gone?

[UNT90]

2 hours ago, NTXCoog said:

While some ADs get fired, others leave for higher profile jobs.  For example, Mack Rhoades left Akron for Houston after only 3 years.  He left Houston for Mizzou right at the average AD tenure.

If RV did have the success with team results, facilities, and fundraising that caused him to get offers from P5 schools for more money, would he stay loyal to UNT or would he be gone?

Gone in a second. He isn't loyal to UNT, he is loyal to Southern Miss. His donations to both athletic club funds show where his loyalties lie (intentional).

[EagleMBA]

17 hours ago, UNT90 said:

Lol. 

But UNT is stable. Terrible, but terribly stable.

Right! Stable! And stable has byproducts!

[DeepGreen]

16 hours ago, UNTexas said:

I appears RV has the same job security as a federal judge. 

Or many other Government/State jobs for that matter.

[GreenTexan13]

28 minutes ago, UNT90 said:

Gone in a second. He isn't loyal to UNT, he is loyal to Southern Miss. His donations to both athletic club funds show where his loyalties lie (intentional).

RV's attire on casual Friday.

 

[untjim1995]

RV isn't going anywhere, anytime soon. Smatresk has been on campus, working, since the early part of 2014. If he couldn't get rid of RV, that's very telling. If he didn't want to get rid of RV, its also very telling.

The BOR makes it real clear that the 17 run athletics. And the 17 make it real clear that RV is their AD--as in they will walk away in a heartbeat if he got canned. And, at North Texas, we know value--we aren't letting known dollars leave. "Opportunity Cost" is not a term that folks at the top in UNT leadership ever entertain.

[Mike Jackson]

7 hours ago, untjim1995 said:

RV isn't going anywhere, anytime soon. Smatresk has been on campus, working, since the early part of 2014. If he couldn't get rid of RV, that's very telling. If he didn't want to get rid of RV, its also very telling.

The BOR makes it real clear that the 17 run athletics. And the 17 make it real clear that RV is their AD--as in they will walk away in a heartbeat if he got canned. And, at North Texas, we know value--we aren't letting known dollars leave. "Opportunity Cost" is not a term that folks at the top in UNT leadership ever entertain.

So what you are saying is that the 17 and BOR really don't care about winning?  Oh, that is what I thought.  Well glad someone finally figured that out after 5 years of season tickets.  Now I can stop wasting my money just hoping for a couple .500 seasons back to back.