As we turn the page to 2019, CollegeAD wanted to take one last look at the Division I AD turnover in 2018 and share the data that we’ve tracked during the course of the last 12 months.
We entered 2018 with 22 openings left over from athletic director movements that happened mostly in 2017. Chicago State had been without a permanent athletic director since July of 2016 before hiring Chris Zorich in May. In total, the AD turnover in 2018 consisted of 70 transactions!
Fifty-four institutions welcomed new athletics directors in 2018 while 16 athletic departments have moved into 2019 still looking for a permanent leader. Of the 54 AD’s that were hired in 2018, 33 are first-time Division I athletic directors.
The SWAC had the most AD turnover in 2018, as six transactions were made, including former Texas Southern athletic director Charles McClelland leaving his post at TSU to become the SWAC Commissioner. The Southland Conference also experienced a high amount of AD turnover in 2018, as five league members saw a change in the chair.
The Power Five saw 10 changes occur in 2018, the PAC-12 lead the way welcoming three new athletic directors in 2018. The ACC, Big Ten, and SEC each had two members experience AD turnover in 2018 while the Big 12 added one new athletic director last year. Of the 16 open positions, only one Power Five job is open as Florida State looks to find Stan Wilcox’s replacement following Wilcox’s decision to depart FSU for a job at the NCAA.
Eight women and 14 minorities were hired as Division I athletic directors in 2018.
The first hire of the year came on January 9 when Northeastern announced Jeff Koyna would take over for the retiring Peter Roby with the last AD turnover in 2018 taking place on December 13 when Air Forced announced its hire of former Holy Cross AD Nathan Pine.
You can see the full list of transactions in the spreadsheet below.