Rare is the athletic director who is the face of the athletic department. They hire the face of the athletic department and in some cases that hire even evolves into the face of the university.
The job tends to have a high turnover rate either because the AD’s hires flop and the AD pays with his job or because the ambitious AD takes a higher-paying, more prestigious job.
Once Kansas hires a new AD — it’s a good time to be in the market since the only real deadline is having a one in place before the start of next school year in mid-August — that will mean 40 percent of the conference’s athletic directors will be in positions occupied by others as recently as the end of the 2016-17 basketball season. That’s assuming no other vacancies come about before KU makes its hires.
A look at Big 12 athletic directors, listed in order of their hiring dates.
| Big 12 school | Athletic Director | Previous position | Date hired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oklahoma | Joe Castiglione | Missouri AD | April, 1998 |
| Oklahoma State | Mike Holder | OSU golf coach | Sep., 2005 |
| Iowa State | Jamie Pollard | Wisconsin Deputy AD | Sep., 2005 |
| Texas Tech | Kirby Hocutt | Miami (Fla.) AD | Feb., 2011 |
| West Virginia | Shane Lyons | Alabama Deputy AD | Jan., 2015 |
| Baylor | Mack Rhoades | Missouri AD | July, 2016 |
| Kansas State | Gene Taylor | Iowa Deputy AD | April, 2017 |
| Texas | Chris Del Conte | TCU AD | Dec., 2017 |
| TCU | Jeremiah Donati | TCU Deputy AD | Dec., 2017 |
