The Search, Part 6: The builders

Ingram departure | Fan reaction | Part 1: The Job | Part 2: The Profile | Part 3: The Obvious Names | Part 4: The Birmingham Connections | Part 5: The Basketball Background | Part 7: The Outside-the-Box Hire | Bill Clark interest

The previous installments of this series profiled the obvious names, the Birmingham connections and the basketball-first executives. This one looks at the builders — sitting athletic directors outside the Power 4 who have taken programs with fewer resources and made them punch above their weight.

These are people who have raised money where money was scarce, built facilities where facilities did not exist and won conference championships. UAB in the American Athletic Conference would represent a step up in platform for most of the people profiled here — a chance to do what they have already proven they can do - on a bigger stage.

A note repeated from earlier in this series: Diehard is not building a candidate list. We have no knowledge of who has applied, who has been contacted or who is under consideration. Or even if any of that has started. None of the people profiled below are being identified as candidates for the UAB athletic director job. What we are doing is using real people and real resumes to show fans the talent pool that exists — and to give them a window into how a search committee thinks.

Rocko DeLuca

DeLuca is the athletic director at UC Davis, where he has been since 2016 — first as deputy AD, then as the permanent AD since 2021.

In March 2026, DeLuca was named the NACDA Athletic Director of the Year for Division I FCS.

What he has built there is a case study in program development. He grew the athletics budget from $32 million to $55 million. Ticket sales increased 62 percent. Football revenue increased 97 percent. He oversaw the construction of the $52 million Edwards Family Athletics Center. He led UC Davis's transition into the Mountain West for Olympic sports, with football remaining in the Big Sky. He created the IGNITE strategic plan, a stakeholder-driven initiative that involved more than 100 participants. FCS football has reached the playoffs three times under his watch — in 2021, 2024 and 2025 — including a program-best No. 5 national ranking. The Aggies posted a 93 percent Graduation Success Rate, top 10 nationally. During COVID, he eliminated zero staff positions.

Before UC Davis, DeLuca was at UMass, where he was part of the program's FCS-to-FBS transition, helped drive record-breaking fundraising and oversaw $75 million in facility projects. Before that, he was at Colorado, where he started as a student athletic trainer and moved into annual giving — increasing it 60 percent.

His stated philosophy: "I've really tried to take jobs where there's an opportunity to make an impact."

DeLuca has built everything UAB needs — budget growth, facilities, postseason success, stakeholder engagement, conference transition experience — at an FCS program without the visibility of the American Athletic Conference.

Sean Frazier

Frazier was a walk-on football player at the University of Alabama from 1987 to 1991.

He has been the athletic director at Northern Illinois for 13 years — and in that time he has built a national profile that far exceeds the platform. He is the current president of NACDA, the industry's most prominent leadership organization. He has been named a Sports Business Journal AD of the Year finalist. He served as president of the Minority Opportunities Athletic Association.

Before NIU, his career path included AD stints at Manhattanville, Clarkson and Merrimack, then six years as deputy AD at Wisconsin.

The biggest line on Frazier's resume may be the most recent one. He led NIU through a full conference realignment — football to the Mountain West, Olympic sports to the Horizon League. Navigating a conference transition is one of the hardest things an athletic director can do, and Frazier just did it. UAB went through its own transition into the American in 2023. Having someone who understands what that process demands is worth something.

Jeremy McClain

McClain is the athletic director at Southern Miss. He has been in the job since 2019, his second stint at the school — he previously served as deputy AD.

Between those two stints, he was the athletic director at Troy. In Alabama. From 2015 to 2019. At Troy, the football program won 31 games over three seasons, won a Sun Belt championship and played in three bowl games. He knows Alabama's donor landscape, business community and media market from the inside.

At Southern Miss, he produced a record fundraising year in fiscal year 2025 and a school-record $30.4 million in total revenue. He is a former professional baseball player.

The American is a step up from the Sun Belt. Birmingham is a larger market than Hattiesburg. And McClain has already done this in Alabama once — at a school 145 miles south of UAB.

Dr. Josh Looney

Looney is the athletic director at North Alabama, a United Athletic Conference program in Florence — already in the state. In 2026, he was named the NACDA Athletic Director of the Year for Division I FCS.

His fundraising numbers are hard to ignore. Under Looney, UNA athletics generated $20.6 million in philanthropic giving and external revenue in fiscal year 2023. The centerpiece project is Bank Independent Stadium — UNA's first on-campus football stadium, a goal the university first unveiled in 1974. It is the largest construction project in university history. He surpassed $1 million in annual corporate partnerships for the first time. Season ticket sales grew 30 percent in basketball and 17 percent in football. Men's basketball earned UNA's first NIT bid. UNA won the ASUN Men's All-Sport Trophy in 2025 — three years out of its Division I transition.

Looney serves on the NCAA Division I Football Championship Committee and as the AD chair of the new United Athletic Conference.

Before North Alabama, he spent six years in the Kansas City Chiefs front office, one year with the Orlando Magic, three years at the NCAA national office and four years as VP and AD at Missouri Western State — where he also served as interim VP of Advancement. He holds an MBA, an Ed.D. and a Harvard leadership certificate.

The UAC to the American is a clear step up, and he is already in Alabama.

Jason Donnelly

Donnelly is the vice president for intercollegiate athletics at Furman, a Southern Conference school in Greenville, South Carolina. In 2024, he was named the NACDA Athletic Director of the Year.

What he has done at Furman with fundraising is staggering for an FCS program. He oversaw a 426 percent increase in fundraising, producing more than $19 million in commitments. Before Furman, he spent 14 years at Villanova under Jay Wright — including two national basketball championships. That basketball pedigree is relevant at UAB, where the sport is central to the athletic department's identity.

Furman to UAB would be a clear step up in conference, market and resources.

Mark Alnutt

Alnutt was the deputy athletic director at Memphis — which is in the American Athletic Conference. He already knows the league UAB plays in.

He is now the athletic director at Buffalo, where his contract was extended through 2030 in 2025. A Missouri alumnus and three-year football letterman, Alnutt has overseen eight MAC conference championships and opened a $7.5 million sports performance center at Buffalo. He served as chair of the NCAA Minority Opportunity and Interests Committee.

The American is a step up from the MAC, and Alnutt would not be walking into an unfamiliar conference. He has already worked in it.

Nico Yantko

Yantko is the ceiling in this category.

He is 39 years old and the athletic director at his alma mater, Murray State, a Missouri Valley Conference program. His contract runs through 2030. He was named to The Athletic's 40 Under 40. His salary is reported at $650,000 — one of the highest outside the Power 4. There is a reason for that.

At Murray State, he launched a $100 million capital campaign — at an FCS school. He has already secured $31 million in commitments, including the university's largest-ever $10 million gift. He built RACER Enterprises, a mixed-use entertainment district with premium seating, retail and hospitality wrapped around more than $50 million in capital projects. He modernized the front office with general manager and president of basketball operations roles and implemented a revenue-share system funded by private support and NIL. Murray State made the NCAA Tournament in basketball and the College World Series in baseball under his watch. He led the program's move from the Ohio Valley Conference to the Missouri Valley.

Before Murray State, Yantko was the deputy athletic director at Louisiana, where he ran all external operations during one of the most dominant stretches in Sun Belt history. As football sport administrator, he led the search that produced Billy Napier. The football program won four consecutive championships, 41 games and finished ranked as high as No. 16 nationally. Yantko secured the largest athletics gift in Louisiana's history — a $15 million naming rights deal for Cajun Field. He more than doubled football ticket revenue, grew ticket memberships by more than 40 percent and pushed annual philanthropic support past $30 million.

Before Louisiana, he spent seven years at Missouri, where he directed fundraising during the program's transition into the SEC. He led the two largest fundraising years in department history, closed a university-record 11 seven-figure gifts in a single fiscal year and contributed to more than $250 million in athletics capital projects — including $200 million in Memorial Stadium renovations. He started his career at NC State.

One factor works against the fit: Yantko's salary may already be at the top of the range UAB would offer for this position.

Ryan Ivey

Ivey is the vice president and athletic director at Louisiana Tech, a former UAB rival in Conference USA that joined the Sun Belt on July 1, 2026. He is a Memphis alum who played football there as a punter. His contract was extended in 2026 at a salary of $225,000.

Ivey has been an athletic director at four schools in 11 years — Texas A&M-Commerce, Austin Peay, Stephen F. Austin and now Louisiana Tech. At every stop, the pattern is the same: he walks in, identifies what needs fixing and fixes it.

At Texas A&M-Commerce, he was selected from more than 50 applicants in 2013 and drove a turnaround of the program. At Austin Peay, he inherited a football team with one of the worst records in the country and hired Will Healy, a young receivers coach from Chattanooga, to run it. The Governors tied their program record for single-season wins. He secured $6.5 million in private gifts, increased football and basketball ticket revenue a combined 39 percent and had a program-record 10 student-athletes named to the Arthur Ashe Jr. Sport Scholar teams.

At Stephen F. Austin, he oversaw more than $30 million in facility improvements, secured the four largest single gifts in department history, increased ticket sales by 189 percent and led the program through a conference transition. At Louisiana Tech, he led the Bulldogs' move from Conference USA to the Sun Belt — a transition both he and UAB understand from experience.

Before becoming an AD, Ivey spent nearly six years at McNeese State.

Dave Scott

Scott is the athletic director at West Florida, which transitioned from Division II to Division I on July 1, 2026. He has held the job for more than 18 years. His track record was built in Division II, in the Gulf South Conference.

In that time, he has won seven national championships — in football, baseball, women's soccer, men's golf (twice) and men's tennis (twice). He was named NACDA's Division II Athletic Director of the Year. West Florida has won 47 conference championships under his leadership. Student-athletes have posted a higher GPA than the general student body for 23 consecutive years. The program finished No. 3 nationally in the Learfield Directors' Cup in 2016-17.

Scott holds an accounting degree from West Virginia. The jump to FBS is significant — the operational scale, the media obligations, the revenue model and the conference governance are different worlds. But there is no AD at any level in the country with a broader track record of winning across more sports.

Next: Part 7 — The outside-the-box hire. What happens when you stop looking inside the AD pipeline and start matching the job to the skill set it actually requires.