New Pitt AD Discusses Non-Revenue Sports

PITTSBURGH — The Pitt Panthers introduced Allen Greene as the new athletic director on Oct. 23 at the Petersen Events Center, who will look to help the university adjust and thrive in the ever-changing college athletics landscape.

Greene fielded numerous questions about how he’ll deal with a number of issues, including NIL (Name, Image and Likeness), raising money for the athletic department, and how the job of an athletic director has changed, but he also answered questions on non-revenue sports.

The NCAA and Power Conferences, as a part of a settlement in the House vs. NCAA court case, will now allow schools to spread around up to $22 million of their annual revenue with student-athletes.

This is different from NIL, which comes from third-party collectives and important boosters, plus donations from fanbases. Athletic Directors and administrators now have to deal with how they distribute money to their players over the coming years with revenue-sharing.

Greene comes into this position with a long history in athletic administration, most recently Tennessee, where he served as Senior Deputy Athletic Director/Chief Operating Officer (COO).

He has seen the landscape change from his time as deputy athletic director/athletic director at Buffalo (2012-18), to more recent jobs as athletic director at Auburn (2018-22) and also his two stints at Ole Miss (2009-12, 2022-23), especially with the job that an athletic director needs to do to ensure success for their programs.

Greene reportedly cut the athletic deparmtent budget across the board by 10% while at Auburn, even after the men’s basketball team made a Final Four and a baseball team made the College World Series for the first time in 22 years.

His expertise came in fundraising, as Auburn received their four largest donations in history in the 2021-22 academic year.

Greene, who played baseball at Notre Dame from 1996-98, has experience with non-revenue sports and understands the pride playing them. He also made sure to reiterate that both football and men’s basketball are of upmost importance, as they bring the money in.

“It certainly makes them feel good,” Greene said. “I’m a product of one of those non-revenue sports. I think we had maybe our parents and maybe a couple girlfriends in the stands when I was playing baseball a 100 years ago. So it’s definitely, it helps make people feel good, but we also know football and men’s basketball are going to be the drivers and I want to make sure that those programs are set up and built for success. Not just in the conference, but nationally.”

Pitt currently has some top-tier programs for their non-revenue sports that rival the best in the nation.

Volleyball, under head coach Dan Fisher, has won five ACC titles, made it to eight straight NCAA Tournaments, four consecutive Elite Eights and three straight Final Fours, the only team to achieve the latter. They are also 18-1 this season, No. 1 in the country and looking for their first NCAA Tournament.

Men’s soccer, under head coach Jay Vidovich, turned from the worst program in the ACC to one of the best. They’ve made five straight NCAA Tournaments and made both three straight Elite Eights and two College Cups from 2020-22.

Women’s soccer has also had success, with head coach Randy Waldrum getting this team to the both the ACC Tournament and the NCAA Tournament for the first time. This included a Sweet 16 appearance in 2022 and an Elite Eight appearance in 2023.

Wrestling possesses a strong tradition at Pitt, with Pennsylvania serving as one of, if not the, best states for talent. Head coach Keith Gavin helped Nino Bonaccorsi to finish undefeated and win the National Title at 197 pounds in 2023.

Pitt also is in the process of the Victory Heights project, which sees improvements for 16 of their 19 programs, including a new arena for gymnastics, volleyball and wrestling, replacing Fitzgerald Field House.

Greene didn’t speak on if upcoming cuts would occur to any programs, as he has just started his new position and will seek advice from those at Pitt to see if they need to make any changes going forward.

“I would argue that’s a national conversation about resource allocation,” Greene said. “We have not had the conversation. I want to visit with our team here in the athletics department and understand what conversations they’ve been having thus far and then figure out if that’s the best plan for us if we feel like we need to make any adjustments.”

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