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 a good search firm that might want me to do this for them, please put me in touch so I can stop making videos about every opening publicly.

• 0:45 - Listing out the 18 AD Openings
• 3:40 - Troy
• 5:28 - Stanford
• 8:22 - Cal
• 10:15 - South Florida
• 12:50 - Delaware
• 14:33 - New Mexico State
• 17:30 - Utah State
• 18:16 - Austin Peay State
• 20:49 - Bucknell
• 21:35 - Cal Poly
• 23:13 - Gardner-Webb
• 24:17 - South Carolina State
• 27:21 - Southern Utah
• 30:29 - CSU Northridge
• 31:40 - New Orleans
• 33:28 - UC San Diego
• 34:30 - UC Riverside
• 36:46 - Oklahoma
• 37:23 - Closing

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 presidents and chancellors who make the decisions to hire or fire.This post presents a few (but not all) key trends in AD hiring since 2020, marking the first in a series of studies I plan to write about in the weeks ahead. My goal is to provide leaders with insights to benchmark their institutions and help prospective athletic directors help forecast or course correct based on where they want to go next.

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 retired ADs?

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 the Year, Change Agency
• Georgia Tech Selects UT's Ryan Alpert
• Diana Sabau Leaving Utah State for Deputy Role at Maryland
• 3 Great Interviews: Troy Dannen (CALS), Dan Bartholomae (The Journey), David Harris (Connect)

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 position at Lamar shortly after Spears came on board. Would he come back?

Since there aren’t any other obvious candidates, I decided to research recent AD hires at the same membership level of Marshall. I have been putting together an AD hiring spreadsheet for my dissertation and that guides me in some of my thought processes. The data is split on whether it will be a sitting AD, a power school deputy AD, or a Sun Belt Conference deputy. I do offer one potential name besides O'Malley but it seems difficult to predict.

Marshall HEA Briefing: https://higheredathletics.com/2025/06/11/hea-briefing-marshall/

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 of thought. I spend a great deal of time investigating an opening, which you can see for Georgia Tech in my HEA Briefings article linked below.

Georgia Tech HEA Briefing: https://higheredathletics.com/2025/06/15/hea-briefing-georgia-tech/

Dr. Kevin White joined Higher Ed Athletics to discuss his new book, The Good Sport: Reflections on a Full Life in College Sports. The former multi-stop AD (Loras College, Maine, Tulane, Arizona State, Notre Dame, Duke) and now senior advisor for Huron's intercollegiate athletics business talks about his experiences and the importance of political IQ and the art of anticipation. This book and conversation should be mandatory consumption for current and future ADs from beginning to end.

• 0:00 Introduction
• 4:25 Travis Takeaways from the Book
• 7:18 Kevin's Quote about his Father and How it Steered his Career
• 13:00 Day One Advice for a New AD: Find the Power Influencers
• 19:10 Art of Anticipation or Political IQ - You Gotta Have Both
• 23:15 The Need to Look Further Ahead in College Athletics
• 24:45 How to Build Up Political IQ
• 28:40 Being a Truth Teller has No Off-Ramp
• 30:25 The Kevin White Athletic Director Tree
• 38:50 "Loaves and Fishes" + Why Loras College was the Perfect First Assignment
• 42:30 Attending Harvard's Institute for Educational Management for Aspiring Higher Ed Leaders
• 46:00 Always Felt like there was a Plan for My Life + Seminary Story
• 52:25 Mount Rushmore of Former Athletic Directors

Buy the book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Good-Sport-Kevin-White/dp/1622181166/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2PZ67KOA2XBPF&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.CJBbnS8LDu_D-z3oMVk-gA5nzJDhV8egE_aUNO0r29NhVpxWGoiAQg3HTmd0ZFCLfseg_7uoPM7VgPgGPAXu7sTHBVuww4XunnRUgGEXR9Q2GkTVE152fVg5bYnw6Az_3xzgpOaH6PJpbpLzJc8Szg7W9FsIt70alURO2kBMhnJLhXMPQT0UaGHCoFB9pDrSzgRcucdX7ImE20Gmq8vB6zynPGz9rG3RfCB9wEp4Cq0.Kguh_nxQXGhldolHXPGonbMkrdTiGTZgIs6j1JGvZgs&dib_tag=se&keywords=the+good+sport+kevin+white&qid=1749874551&sprefix=the+good+sport+kevin+whit%2Caps%2C165&sr=8-1

For those that don’t know, I started HEA in 2020 to interview ADs in hopes of studying the position as a career one day in a research setting or at an industry search firm. I will be finishing my doctorate dissertation on athletic director hiring trends in 2025-2026 academic year, so I thought it was time I start finding my own voice on the subject of AD hires and AD trends. instead of only asking the questions.

In this episode, I give my take on the AD opening and talk about the names being mentioned in Tampa Bay outlets. I also offer my out-of-left-field candidate and make a prediction on who I think will get the job - if they want it - with an in-depth reason. And I don't think the ongoing presidential search has to delay their search for a new AD.

If you are listening to this because you are interested in the AD opening at USF, then I invite you to read the HEA Briefing I completed in the show notes below. The purpose of the HEA Briefing is to give administrators an understanding of the political landscape of the institution and its location to help them improve their political IQ and awareness of trends in higher education.

USF HEA Briefing: https://higheredathletics.com/2025/06/08/hea-brief-university-of-south-florida/

www.HigherEdAthletics.com. Nathan Christensen joins HEA to discuss several topics, including his journey to the role, how he specifically prepared for the interview process at ISU, and the unique timing of stepping in alongside new university president, Dr. Mike Godard. Interesting tidbit for those that will interview with a search firm - Christensen was asked in two different AD searches about who he hangs out with in the industry at conferences, etc. Relationships matter. Christensen discusses the strategies he’s been bringing to Terre Haute in the past year, the strength of ISU’s consistent and committed athletic administrators (60ish years at ISU among three top administrators) and how that foundation supports a new era of leadership. We also dive into pressing topics in college athletics—from the emotional impact of the transfer portal on mid-major programs like ISU’s men’s basketball team, to ISU's decisions and strategies with financial decisions, like life after the expected NCAA House settlement. He ends the conversation with three areas he thinks are important for aspiring athletic directors: being a visionary...having emotional intelligence...and a strong political IQ.

• 0:00 Introduction
• 1:40 Preparing for the ISU AD Search
• 7:45 Strategies he thought could work at ISU early on
• 11:00 Being President Godard's first hire and working together on a big agenda
• 15:30 Consistency of ISU Athletic Administration
• 21:20 Education level of donors/fans after Men's Basketball complete roster overhaul in 2024
• 26:40 Explaining the Investor Society to help increase fundraising efforts
• 28:40 ISU's plans for the House Settlement
• 33:00 Three pieces of advice for aspiring ADs (Visionary, Emotional Intelligence, Political IQ)