Athletic director

An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches and related staff involved in athletic programs.

Position at institution
Modern athletic directors are often in a precarious position, especially at the larger institutions. Although technically in charge of all of the coaches, they are often far less well-compensated and also less famous, with few having their own television and radio programs as many coaches now do. In attempting to deal with misconduct by coaches, they often find their efforts trumped by a coach's powerful connections, particularly if he is an established figure with a long-term winning record. However, in the case of severe coaching misconduct being proven, often the athletic director will be terminated along with the offending coach.

Over the last several years, the role of an athletic director has changed dramatically. Before, the athletic department was overseen by one of the school's head coaches. Now, the position attracts executives inside and outside the sports industry. Athletic directors can negotiate multimillion-dollar media deals and can manage powerful coaches who are usually the highest paid employees in the state. Based on the division and the school's athletic needs, athletic directors can also be in charge of scheduling games and events, monitoring a team's players and making sure coaches, players and anyone who is heavily involved with the department are complying with all of the sports agency's regulations. A bachelor's degree is required for all divisions and a masters degree is preferred by larger schools. These degrees normally consist of sports management, psychology, physical education and business management. The top athletic directors in high school have an average salary ranging from $58,400 to $87,000. In 2013, the highest paid athletic director at the NCAA Division I level was David Williams of Vanderbilt who was paid $3,239,678. However, Williams' salary was at the time not directly comparable to that of other Division I athletic directors because of Vanderbilt's unique administrative structure for varsity athletics. Unlike all other Division I schools, Vanderbilt athletics were then governed directly by the university (specifically within its Division for Student Life) rather than administered by a separate athletic department. Effectively, Vanderbilt athletics were treated as any other student organization. Williams' athletic duties were part of his position as Vanderbilt's vice president for student life. The university has since returned to a more traditional Division I model of a separate athletic department, with Williams returning to the formal title of athletic director; he resigned from that role shortly before his death in 2019.