As the University of Iowa looks to find a new "deputy director of athletics for strategic initiatives" — as the position is officially listed on the UI job board — recently promoted athletic director Beth Goetz describes the athletic department's number-two role as more "extremely focused."
“They won’t be as focused on running sort of the day-to-day in the department although they’ll play a role in that to be sure,” Goetz said, as reported by John Steppe of The Gazette of Cedar Rapids.
The refocus is a result of “evaluating what the landscape is and then also what are the strengths on our staff,“ Goetz said.
"The collegiate sports ecosystem has changed dramatically with the advent of NIL and the transfer portal," Steppe wrote. "More change is seemingly inevitable as the NCAA fends off several legal battles related to athlete compensation."
Goetz’s promotion from deputy AD to interim AD (and then permanent AD) created the vacancy, Steppe added. The last three people to hold the position had past experience as Division I athletics directors — Goetz at Ball State, Barbara Burke at Eastern Illinois and Gene Taylor at North Dakota State.
The position description asks for at least 10 years of “progressively more complex administrative and managerial experience within an NCAA Division I Athletics program and/or related industry,” Steppe reported.
“From a skill set standpoint, you’re looking at people who have backgrounds in either fundraising, ticketing, marketing, sponsorship, those type of things,” Goetz said.
This is one of two deputy AD positions at Iowa. Matt Henderson has been Iowa’s other deputy AD since 2021 with the official responsibility of “revenue and external relations.”
“Wanted to make sure we had some additional hands and additional expertise to really partner with Matt in that space to make sure we’re positioning ourselves well for the future,” Goetz said, as reported by The Gazette.
