The AthleticDirectorU Athletic Department Power Index, powered by Athlete Viewpoint, continues with a look at the America East Conference. The Athletic Department Power Index will evaluate the desirability of Athletic Director jobs in every Division I conference across the country.
It’s imperative to note the Athletic Department Power Index is not intended or developed to analyze the performance or potential of the current Athletic Director at the respective institutions. Rather it is an assessment of the opportunity generally through the eyes of both peers and aspirants to the position were it to become available.
Over 60 sitting Athletic Directors and executive-level administrators who currently are or could soon be an America East AD were invited to share feedback on each AD job in the league. The data was used to provide detailed insights about the potential for success at each school.
The ten variables utilized to determine the rankings include:
- Athletics facilities relative to America East peers
- Perceptions about the ability to generate donor & corporate support for the athletics program
- Perceptions about institutional leadership (e.g. President, Trustees, C-Suite) in support of the athletic program
- Perceptions about the quality of the institution’s brand
- Perceptions about the potential for serious compliance & NCAA rules violations
- Potential for Football success relative to America East peers
- Potential for Men’s Basketball success relative to America East peers
- Potential for success in non-revenue sports relative to America East peers
- Potential to become a ‘Power 5’ AD from each institution
- Quality of Life (cost of living, schools, culture, geography) if all other factors were equal
Here are the overall rankings with a rating of seven having a much better likelihood for success than other league AD jobs and one as much worse likelihood for success:
Here’s the full category by category ranking results:
With UMBC’s historic 16-over-1 victory two NCAA Tournaments ago, here’s how respondents viewed the ability for each league program to have Men’s Basketball success (graded on a scale of seven as ‘much better than peers’ & one as ‘much worse’):
The America East Conference has a number of notable non-revenue sport success stories, like Stony Brook making the College World Series in 2012. Here’s how respondents qualified the ability for each member institution to have success in non-revenue sports (graded on a scale of seven as ‘much better than peers’ & one as ‘much worse’):
To view additional results from the Athletic Department Power Index: America East Conference, including which AD job could lead to a ‘Power 5’ opportunity, how facility and donor support profiles match-up, brand perception and specific comments from respondents, click here. The tool allows you to sort ratings by any question and compare schools individually.
This Athletic Department Power Index intends to review all of the Division I conferences in the coming months. As was the case with the America East, selected individuals will be invited to participate and share their views about specific conferences and the subsequent data will be shared in a similar manner. The technical expertise, survey development, survey distribution and data visualization are provided by Athlete Viewpoint.
Up next in the series: the Pac-12 Conference.
