It has been a whirlwind week for Georgia Tech athletics.
On Monday, Michigan State announced it hired J Batt away from Tech to serve as its athletic director. On Wednesday, Tech officially promoted Jon Palumbo to serve as interim athletic director in Batt’s absence.
From here, it is expected Tech will move fast to name a permanent athletic director. The House v. NCAA settlement, which would set in motion revenue sharing payments in July for athletes, is nearing its completion — that should evoke a sense of urgency from leadership to hire its next athletics leader.
The Georgia Tech Foundation also is expected to meet this month, and the hiring of a new AD undoubtedly will be among its topics of discussion.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously highlighted some worthy candidates Tech might consider for the AD opening. Here are a few more as highlighted by CollegeAD.com.
Tiffini Grimes
Grimes is the deputy athletic director and senior woman administrator at Purdue, where she has been since 2022. Grimes’ role at her alma mater “includes shaping Purdue’s departmental strategy and advising staff on the evolving landscape of college athletics,” according to the school’s website.
An Indiana native, Grimes previously worked in the Tech athletics compliance office.
Tommy McClelland
McClelland is approaching his two-year anniversary of becoming the AD at Rice. He has also been AD at McNeese State and Louisiana Tech, and from 2020-23 was the deputy athletic director at Vanderbilt and helped lead the Vandy United fundraising campaign.
Brian White
Since 2018, White has been the athletic director at Florida Atlantic. He has degrees from Notre Dame and Ohio, and had previously worked at Army and Missouri.
White’s father, Kevin White, retired from his role as Duke’s AD in 2021. His brother Mike White is the basketball coach at Georgia, and his brother Danny White is the AD at Tennessee.
Keli Zinn
Since 2022, Zinn has been at LSU, where she serves as executive deputy director of athletics and chief operating officer. She has been lauded for her NIL-focused initiatives and revenue increases during her time in Baton Rouge.
Zinn also served as deputy AD at West Virginia, her alma mater, and was the school’s interim AD in 2015.
Robby Poteat
Poteat has been with Tech for a little more than two years as the executive associate AD and executive director of development for athletics.
Before moving to Atlanta, Poteat oversaw the University of Dayton’s athletics fundraising efforts for nearly eight of his 14 years there. Poteat played basketball at Guilford College.
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