Commercial Sector Leaders Join College Athletic Departments amidst Sporting Chaos
In a significant shift, college sports departments are increasingly being managed like businesses, with institutions increasingly hiring business leaders as athletic directors. This transformation was highlighted recently when the University of South Florida announced it was looking for a CEO of Athletics, reflecting a new era in college sports.
Jed Hughes, Korn Ferry vice chair and global head of practice, believes more colleges will follow this trend. According to Hughes, successful executives placed into sports environments should have varied experiences, including managing different stakeholders and showing transformational management skills.
The landscape of college sports is changing quickly, requiring strategic, operational, and transformative leaders to navigate the complex and rule-less environment. The athletic director is being referred to as the CEO of collegiate sports departments, reflecting the increasing business-like nature of these departments.
One such executive making the transition is John Donahoe, who is starting as the Stanford athletic director on Sept. 8. Donahoe, who has a background as the CEO of Nike, ServiceNow, and PayPal, lacks traditional sports experience but was already on Stanford's advisory committee and had earned his MBA from the school before being hired.
This trend is not exclusive to Stanford. Notre Dame's Pete Bevacqua was notably plucked straight from the corporate world to become athletic director. The highest paid athletic director in the country, Danny White, earned $3.35 million last academic year.
However, the ranks of athletic department heads at the Power 4 conferences remain filled mostly with people who had prior sports or university administration experience, besides Donahoe, Wildhack, and Bevacqua.
It's important to note that athletic departments often run perennial deficits and are not-for-profits. Texas' athletic department, for instance, has a revenue of $330 million. Despite the financial aspect, executives placed into sports environments need to be aligned with school's interest groups, including the college president, faculty, and coaches.
A former AD at a football power viewed the athletic department as a multimillion-dollar subsidiary of the larger corporation—the university. This perspective is becoming more prevalent as college sports departments become more business-like.
Troy Frank, a professor of business administration at Lincoln University, believes the trend of looking toward business leaders for athletic department leadership is a natural byproduct of the influence of money in intercollegiate athletics. As college sports continue to evolve, it's clear that the role of the athletic director will continue to shift, reflecting the increasing business-like nature of these departments.
However, there are no reported cases in recent years of entrepreneurs becoming athletic directors at universities in the available search results. This indicates that while the trend is clear, it may take time for the full implications to be realised.
In conclusion, the future of college sports leadership is becoming increasingly business-oriented. As institutions look to executives with diverse backgrounds to lead their athletic departments, it's clear that the traditional path to becoming an athletic director is being challenged and redefined.
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