College Athletic Director Salary: An In-Depth Look
Beyond the excitement of the game and the roar of the crowd, the financial aspects of college sports are a significant area of interest. If you're curious about the financial compensation for those who manage college sports, it's important to understand the factors that influence an athletic director's salary.
Understanding the Role of an Athletic Director
Becoming an athletic director requires a unique blend of skills, dedication, and a deep passion for sports. From high schools to major universities, athletic directors play a crucial role in shaping sports programs, as well as guiding the lives of athletes and coaches. They work tirelessly to ensure that athletes have the resources, guidance, and support they need to excel both on and off the field.
Athletic directors are the orchestrators of the sports department in educational institutions, ranging from high schools to colleges and universities. They oversee a wide range of activities, including hiring and managing coaching staff, budgeting and fundraising for sports programs, ensuring compliance with regulations, and fostering a positive environment that promotes sportsmanship and fair play. The athletic director serves as a bridge between the academic institution and the world of athletics, advocating for the well-being and success of student athletes.
Essentially, in college sports, the athletic director acts as the head manager of the entire athletics department. If a task is related to a sporting event or team, the athletic director is probably involved. An athletic director is the head and supervisor of coaches and trainers at higher educational facility like a college. His/her job is to observe the operation of all of the coaches under their command, and correct improper behavior when necessary.
An athletic director serves an administrative function rather than an academic one, and is thus usually lesser-recognized than coaches themselves, as well as professors from the same college. Athletic directors don’t necessarily have to come from a sports background - since they don’t engage in sports directly in any way and their function is management-oriented, there’s no such requirement for becoming an athletic director.
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Typically, an athletic director position is considered the equivalent of a postsecondary education administrator. As such, a master’s degree is generally expected, most often in areas such as sports management or sports medicine. Some of the topics you can expect to cover include sports ethics and law, sports marketing, event management, accounting and finance, and leadership.
Factors Influencing Athletic Director Salaries
The salaries of athletic directors can vary widely based on a number of factors.
Institution Type and Size: The type of institution - whether high school, small college, or large university - significantly impacts levels of compensation. The size of the school, the number of athletic teams you manage, and the success of the school's athletic department all have a strong influence on salary, bonuses and other compensation. For example, college athletic director salaries are going to be higher than those of high school athletic directors. Other related roles on the team also may have slightly lower compensation.
Geographical Location: Just like in most other professions, the cost of living in a particular region or city plays a role in salary negotiations.
Level of Athletics: Athletic directors managing NCAA Division I programs tend to earn more than those overseeing Division II or Division III programs. The scale and scope of responsibilities, along with revenue potential, can vary across divisions.
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Success of the Program: The success of an athletic program can greatly influence the athletic director’s compensation.
Experience: Experience speaks volumes in any field, including this one. Athletic directors with a proven track record of success on the field, as well as fundraising and leadership, are often in a better position to negotiate higher compensation packages.
Athletic Director Salaries within the UNC System
Within the UNC System, 15 of 16 schools have athletic departments and, thus, athletic directors. Unsurprisingly, UNC-Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University make up the top two where athletic director salaries are concerned. As was the case in our story on coaches’ salaries, the base pay for athletic directors appears to tell only part of the story. According to AthleticDirectorU’s database, as of the 2020-21 season, both UNC-Chapel Hill’s and NCSU’s athletic directors made seven figures when taking into account total pay. Additionally, much like coaches, athletic directors often have “buyout” figures included in their contracts. The other UNC System schools pay a varying range. In general, it appears that schools with larger athletic departments (and, therefore, larger budgets) are able to dedicate more resources to their respective athletic directors’ salaries. There also appears to be some correlation between division status and salary, at least for the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), as the five UNC System schools within that category have the top-five highest paid athletic directors. When compared to other schools outside of the UNC System, UNC-Chapel Hill’s and NCSU’s AD salaries look fairly conservative.
When looking at the athletic director’s role as the manager of the athletics department, the most comparable position within colleges and universities is probably that of dean. Much like athletic directors, deans are sure to wear many hats in their departments. UNC-Greensboro is the only school that shows an average dean’s salary that is larger than that of the athletic director. To be sure, this difference in salary could point to a difference of importance. But are athletic departments (and their staffs) really more important than academic departments? The differences in salaries between athletic directors and deans is disappointing in some cases but not entirely surprising. Athletics are often given a seat of honor and seen as increasingly important, not only to the atmosphere of schools (think school spirit) but to their budgets. In addition, it can be difficult for many people to separate a college or university from its sports teams, since sporting events are often integral to the college experience. Still, the world of higher education is exactly that: one of education and academics, not athletics. Due in part to the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, many schools have had to make adjustments to their budgets. This creates an opportunity, as B. The UNC System should keep in mind the purpose of their institutions: providing a high-quality education. Ashlynn Warta is the state reporter for the James G.
Who are the Highest-Paid Athletic Directors?
Salaries for college football and basketball coaches have exploded in recent years, with many of them making more than $10 million per year. Importantly, many salaries for the highest-paid athletic directors aren’t known. For some schools, compensation doesn’t have to be reported because they are private institutions (University of Southern California, Notre Dame), while other salaries haven’t been reported for a few years.
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Here's a look at some of the highest-paid athletic directors in college sports:
- Chris Del Conte: Chris Del Conte got his first crack at being an athletic director at Rice University, which he held from 2006 to ’09 before Texas Christian University hired him for the same position in 2009. Del Conte oversaw the Horned Frogs’ athletic departments until 2017, when the University of Texas at Austin hired him. Texas approved a raise in a new extension for Del Conte in 2019, locking him up through 2027, and it approved another contract extension in August 2023. In mid-August 2025, Texas signed Del Conte to a new multi-year extension through 2036.
- Danny White: Danny White has proven to be one of the best athletic directors in college football. As the University of Central Florida’s athletic director (2015-2021), he decided to hire Scott Frost after George O’Leary stepped down following an 0-12 season in 2015. From 2017-19, the UCF Knights football team went a combined 35-4 with Frost and then Josh Heupel. After his success at Central Florida, the University of Tennessee hired White to replace Phillip Fulmer as athletic director. Starting with the football program, White brought Heupel with him to take over a team that went 3-7 in its final year under Jeremy Pruitt. Two years later, the Volunteers went 11-2, and they’ve won nine-plus games in three consecutive seasons with their first College Football Playoff appearance in 2024. Meanwhile, the Vols’ baseball team won its first College World Series title in 2024, having also made the CWS in 2021 and 2023. As for the men’s basketball team, while Rick Barnes was hired in 2015, the program has gone 109-36 with consecutive Elite Eight trips since 2021.
- Warde Manuel: The University of Michigan hired Warde Manuel as athletic director in 2016, pulling him away from the UConn Huskies. Returning to his alma mater, the Michigan Wolverines athletic director signed a new deal in December 2024 that will keep him with the school through the summer of 2030. Under his current deal, Manuel is making an estimated $2.4 million per year, but some of that compensation is deferred several years down the line.
- Trev Alberts: The Nebraska Cornhuskers signed Trev Alberts to a lucrative contract extension in November 2024, doubling his salary to $1.7 million. A few months later, when Ross Bjork left to become the Ohio State Buckeyes athletic director, the Texas A&M Aggies announced Trev Alberts as their new AD and paid off the $4.12 million buyout to Nebraska. The contract, signed in the summer of 2024, carries an average annual base salary of $2.2 million per year, with his salary steadily increasing over five years.
- Scott Stricklin: Hired as the Florida Gators athletic director in 2016, the University of Florida signed Scott Stricklin to a new contract extension ahead of the 2025 college football season. Just months removed from the Gators’ men’s basketball team winning the national championship, Stricklin’s deal awarded him with a $250,000 raise from his previous annual salary ($1.8 million).
- Greg Byrne: Since being hired in 2017, poached from Arizona, University of Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne has received six raises and contract extensions in a seven-year span. The latest deal, approved in March 2024, gives him a $1.955 million base salary in 2025. Alabama’s athletic director will receive a $2.025 million base salary beginning in the summer of 2026, with subsequent raises for 2027 ($2.095 million), 2028 ($2.167 million), 2029 ($2.235 million), and 2030 ($2.305 million).
- Ross Bjork: Ohio State University athletic director Ross Bjork worked his way up from being an assistant development coordinator for Western Kentucky University (1996-’97) to an associate athletic director for the University of Miami (2003-’05), followed by a stint as UCLA’s senior associate athletic director (2005-’10). In 2024, Ohio State hired him and made him one of the highest-paid athletic directors ever by starting him at a $2 million salary. Bjork’s five-year deal, which runs through 2029, has a $1.65 million base salary with an additional $350,000 for media appearances, promotions, and public relations work. In addition, he receives $60,000 in fringe benefits. Since his hiring, the Buckeyes’ football program has won its first national championship since 2014. Ohio State has expressed public interest in signing Bjork to a new contract extension.
- Scott Woodward: One theme with many of the highest-paid athletic directors is that they used to hold the position at Texas A&M. Scott Woodward served as the Aggies’ athletic director until 2019, when he took over the LSU Tigers’ athletic department. In 2022, he received a four-year contract extension that raised his average annual base salary to $1.85 million.
- Kirby Hocutt: One of the longest-tenured athletic directors on this list, Kirby Hocutt has been overseeing the Texas Tech Red Raiders’ athletic department since being hired away from the Miami Hurricanes in 2011. More than a decade after first being brought on, Hocutt received a multi-year extension in 2022 that will keep him around as Texas Tech’s AD through 2030. Hocutt’s average annual salary is $1.639 million under his current deal.
- Josh Whitman: While the University of Illinois might not have one of the most dominant athletics programs in major sports, Josh Whitman is currently one of the highest-paid athletic directors in the country. Hired by his alma mater in 2016, Whitman received a multi-year contract extension in 2023 that could keep him with the program through 2031. It bumped his pay to $1.5 million per year, with a second raise coming in 2028 when he starts making $1.725 million annually.
General Salary Expectations for Athletic Directors
Athletic directors are usually well-compensated, with salaries ranging broadly from $74,000 to $127,000 annually. The median lies around $96,000, and that’s in correlation with what most athletic directors in popular colleges earn.
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