Report: Rutgers targeting top LSU executive Keli Zinn as next athletic director

Rutgers is reportedly targeting LSU executive deputy athletic director/chief operating officer Keli Zinn as the program’s new athletic director, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel. Zinn has previous athletic director experience as the interim AD at West Virginia in 2015, which made her the first woman to lead the Mountaineers athletic department in program history.

Zinn has been at LSU since 2022, where she oversees all external and internal affairs within the athletic department. She supervised all 21 of LSU’s varsity sports, with direct oversight of football, gymnastics, revenue generation, capital projects, strategic initiatives and more, according to her LSU profile. Prior to arriving in Baton Rouge, Zinn was West Virginia’s deputy athletic director from 2016-22.

Zinn’s LSU profile credits her “passion for sports combined with a keen business acumen” that helped elevate the all of LSU’s athletic programs while also securing “a significant boost in revenue” during her time in Baton Rouge. Zinn was responsible for renegotiating LSU’s multimedia rights partnership that saw the Tigers athletic department secure a 21-percent increase in value, while also overseeing a “remarkable increase in ticket sales, merchandise revenue and donor support.” Last season, LSU’s football program surpassed its highest number of season ticket sales since 2017 with a total of 71,250 tickets sold.

Zinn was also instrumental in locking up a lucrative and unique access and rights agreement with Amazon Prime Video to produce the famed “The Money Game” documentary series forced on NIL that followed LSU student-athletes during the 2023-24 season.

A 2002 graduate of West Virginia, Zinn returned to her alma mater in 2010 as an associate athletics director for compliance and governance, and was promoted to executive senior associate athletics director in 2014 and eventually interim AD a year later. Zinn also has Big Ten experience having served as Maryland‘s assistant AD from 2005-10 and served as a compliance assistant in the Big East between 2003-04.

Once formally hired, Zinn replaces former Rutgers AD Pat Hobbs, who stepped down just prior to the 2024 college football season citing health issues. Hobbs’ time at Rutgers was embroiled in controversy, including allegedly being involved an improper relationship with now-fired women’s gymnastics coach Umme Salim-Beasley. It reportedly led to Beasley’s job being relatively safe amid allegations of athlete mistreatment.

LSU’s William F. Tate named new Rutgers University President

Rutgers reportedly named LSU President William F. Tate to the same role, according to NJ Advance Media’s Steve Politi. The New Jersey university and Big Ten school casted a search for their new university president following Jonathan Holloway’s tenure.

“Tate has served as Executive Vice President for Academic Affair and Provost, while holding the Education Foundation Distinguished University Professorship at the University of South Carolina,” his bio at LSU read. “Prior to that, he served as a department chair and dean of the Graduate School and Vice Provost for Graduate Education at Washington University in St. Louis from 2002 to 2020. In addition, he held the Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professorship in Arts & Sciences. Prior joining Washington University in St. Louis, he served as the William L. and Betty F. Adams Chair at TCU and as a tenured faculty member at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

“At South Carolina, Tate oversaw the 13 schools and colleges on the University of South Carolina Columbia campus, UofSC School of Medicine Columbia, and the UofSC School of Medicine Greenville, as well as being responsible for the overall leadership of academic affairs of the university, including curriculum development, program assessment, establishment of academic standards and university accreditation.”

Tate will be Rutgers’ 22nd president in school history. Rutgers has more than 69,000 students on three campuses and a $5 billion annual budget. He was approved by the Rutgers Board of Governors with the consent of the Rutgers Board of Trustees and introduced at a joint meeting in New Brunswick, NJ.

— On3’s Nick Kosko contributed to this report.