Tennessee's next AD will fill an ever-expanding role

 Doug Dickey walked off the football field and slid into the athletic director’s chair. Mike Hamilton worked his way up through the athletic administration ranks. Dave Hart arrived having already been an athletic director at two other universities.

As the University of Tennessee conducts a search for the ninth athletic director in school history, determining the best qualifications of a candidate has become increasingly more complex.

Although the core job principles – hiring coaches and fundraising – remain just as important, the modern-day athletic director is working in an ever-evolving profession.

The finances in college athletics have grown exponentially, conferences have realigned, sexual assault and academic scandals have cast a dark cloud and student-athlete rights and welfare issues have the potential to change the landscape dramatically.

Because of the multi-dimensional role, finding a candidate that checks every box needed to lead a Power 5 conference athletic department is largely elusive.

“It really depends on the institutional needs at the time,” Texas Christian University athletic director Chris Del Conte said. “If you are really struggling for money, you go and hire someone with the ability to acquire resources. If your finances are not sound, you hire someone with a business background. If things are going great, maybe you bring in a non-traditional candidate with a different view.”

Tennessee is in the process of finding a new athletic director to replace Hart, who announced his retirement on Aug. 18. Hart’s retirement goes into effect on June 30.

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Last Friday, UT announced it had selected Turnkey Sports and Entertainment to assist incoming Chancellor Beverly Davenport with the national search.

UT has assembled a search committee – highlighted by former UT quarterback great Peyton Manning and alumni/donors Charlie Anderson and Jimmy Haslam – to help vet the candidates. Davenport’s full-time appointment at UT begins Feb. 15.

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“Search firms have done a really good job through the years and they are becoming more and more important for the search, especially for the Power 5 schools,” said Bob Vecchione, the executive director of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics. “A lot of times the main reason for the search firms is because they are like an outside entity and they don’t have to adhere to all the open record laws and they are able to keep it quiet and create a certain level of confidentiality, which is really needed if you are a sitting AD somewhere.”

Jeremy Foley recently retired after 25 years as the athletic director at the University of Florida. Foley first started working in Florida’s athletic department as an intern in the ticket office in 1976.

During Foley’s run as athletic director, Florida teams won 27 national championships and the Gators claimed the SEC All-Sports Trophy in 24 of his 25 years. Foley is the only athletic director to supervise a program that won multiple national titles in football and basketball.

“It is a multi-faceted job and you have to manage a huge number of people. You are dealing with a lot of things that go on every day that don’t show up in the paper or have anything to do with winning a game or recruiting,” Foley said. “But probably the most significant responsibility you have in terms of people is hiring coaches. My philosophy has always been the success of your college athletics program is totally determined by the quality of your coaches. If you have great ones, you have great programs.”

Glenn Wong, a sports law educator, has conducted research on the career path of athletic directors and discovered a diverse skill set is required to fill the position.

“Modern-day, Power 5 ADs are truly like CEOs, and have so many responsibilities that it's difficult to determine which are truly ‘primary,’ ” said Wong, the executive director of the Sports Law & Business Program at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. “For instance, the ‘primary’ responsibilities listed in Long Beach State's – a non-Power 5 school – job posting for its athletic director position is 10 items long, and includes NCAA/Title IX compliance, the fostering of an ‘inclusive, diverse environment,’ and fundraising.”

The expanding scope of an athletic director’s job functions has led some universities to consider a broader pool of candidates.

“One of the more interesting trends in AD hiring over the past decade or so is the increasing attractiveness of ‘non-traditional’ hires, i.e. those with no direct experience in collegiate athletic administration,” Wong said. “Some universities are looking for outsiders to steer their athletic departments to keep up with commercialization. The economics of college sports demand that athletic departments be run like traditional businesses, and universities are looking outside the industry for those with the core business and legal competencies they find themselves in need of.”

Although she understands how crucial financial health is for an athletic department, Dr. Connee Zotos worries about integrity issues arising if a university hires an outsider as AD.

“I am just not sure people who come from big business understand the responsibility of student-athlete welfare and the fact that this is a non-profit called higher education that owes that kind of protection to the student athlete,” said Zotos, an associate professor at the Tisch Institute for Sports Management, Media and Business at NYU. “It makes me a little bit nervous to look at people who have been excellent in business operations when they don’t have any background in higher education.”

Zotos, a former athletic director at the Division II and III levels, believes the growing demands and scrutiny of running a high-level athletic department has made it a less attractive job for some.

“It is a difficult position and I am seeing fewer and fewer that want to do it,” she said. “I have some friends and former students who are associate ADs that are really well qualified at Power 5 school conferences and are close enough where they could apply for AD jobs and they are just not. They are staying at the associate level because they want to do the right things and they don’t want to deal with value conflict decisions.”

Foley always tried to keep the bigger picture in mind when faced with a potentially image-damaging situation.

“Certainly, the stakes are as high as they have always been and it’s really about making sure you do the right thing to represent the institution in the right way,” Foley said. “Every decision you make needs to be in the best interest of the institution, not to win a game or get a recruit or please a coach. It needs to be what is right for the institution.”

During his first few years as Florida’s AD, Foley’s decision-making process was largely unilateral. But as the job became more complex, he realized the value of building a strong team within the department to complement everyone’s strengths and weaknesses.

“You need to make sure you surround yourself with great people,” Foley said. “Having good people around you can help you in a lot of different areas and give you a better direction on how to deal with a crisis. There is absolutely no way to do that by yourself.”

Calling college administration “a people business,” Del Conte is one of the more visible and social-media savvy athletic directors in the country. He regularly interacts with fans on Twitter and monitors blogs and fan boards.

“You have to be as transparent as possible. I try to be transparent to all our constituents and let them know what is happening and what we are doing,” said Del Conte, who previously worked in athletic administration at Rice, Arizona, Washington State and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. “I constantly use social media, not only to get our message out, but to get in front of a story, good, bad or indifferent. Back in the day, something is discussed at the barber’s shop and then hits the beauty salon and by the time it reaches campus you had three to four days to prepare. Now it’s instantaneous.”

From negotiating media rights deals and coaching contracts to upgrading facilities to galvanizing the fan base and avoiding scandals, UT’s next athletic director will have no shortage of tasks to perform.

No matter what path Tennessee takes in its national search, there is one qualification every candidate must possess.

“Whoever is sitting in that chair needs to have thick skin,” Foley said. “One thing you realize is you can’t please everybody in this business. With Twitter, the internet and blogs you have constant reaction on the decisions you make. You better be prepared to deal with that because there is instant criticism, instant disagreement and instant second-guessing that can be pretty stinging.”