Somewhere in Omaha, Nebraska, at around 8:15 AM, Monday through Friday, an all-black SUV pulls up, sometimes aggressively, to the school drop-off line. That SUV is full of laughter, music, sometimes tears and memories, but they are the best part of the day for Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics Adrian Dowell.
“Sometimes I cut it close to my first meetings because the lines are slow, but I wouldn’t change that time with my kids for the world,” said Dowell.
By the time most Division I athletic directors take their first call, scan their first email, or sit down for their first donor meeting, Dowell has already navigated a different kind of pressure cooker.
Morning drop off. Three kids. A compressed clock. A schedule that would make most CEOs blink twice.
“By 8:30,” he says with a grin, “I’ve seen everything. Tears, laughing, fighting. So when I get to work and campus, I’m ready for anything.”
Since his appointment in November 2021, Omaha has won 11 conference titles, reached eight NCAA tournaments, and made 17 appearances in conference championship games. Six teams have finished ranked nationally. Oh, and UNO student-athletes have posted a 3.4 cumulative GPA over three straight years, a 95 percent Graduation Success Rate, and a 993 Academic Progress Rate.
Those numbers tell part of the story. The more revealing part is how he got there.
The Path Was Clear
Dowell was not the type who stumbled into athletics administration. He mapped it out before most teenagers had even chosen a favorite subject.
“I was one of those really weird kids,” he says. “Middle school, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.”
Raised in Salem, Virginia, he grew up immersed in all things sports. His father loved them. He loved them. By age 12, he had decided athletics administration was not just a dream but his ultimate destination. That clarity shaped every step that followed. He chose to play basketball at Roanoke College. He captained the team and earned academic honors. He learned the discipline that comes from competing for something bigger than yourself without scholarship money or NIL deals attached.
“You show up because you love it,” he says. “That teaches you what matters.”
After graduation, he landed at the NCAA as a postgraduate intern working in Division I men’s basketball operations. For a young sports obsessive, it felt like stepping into the control room of the industry. Selection weekend. Final Four logistics. The machinery and magic behind March Madness. He thought he had made it.
Then his boss changed his trajectory with a single conversation.
Greg Shaheen, who oversaw the tournament at the time, offered Dowell a path to a full-time job. But he also gave him advice that reshaped his career. If he wanted to be an athletic director, Shaheen said, he needed three things.
Go back to campus.
Earn an MBA.
Work in fundraising.
“At the time, I thought it was all negative, all three suggestions,” Dowell says. “But he was absolutely right.”
Learning The Business Side
Dowell followed the blueprint. He enrolled at West Virginia, which had just launched a dual MBA and master’s in sports administration program. He joined the Mountaineers’ development office and spent six years immersed in all things fundraising. He learned how facilities are built, how campaigns are funded, and how vision turns into an actual infrastructure.
Those skills became his professional backbone.
Creighton University soon came calling as it transitioned into the Big East. Dowell was hired to build its athletic development office from scratch. Over eight years, he helped raise more than $100 million in contributions, oversaw external affairs, and worked directly with men’s basketball as a sport administrator.
It was also where he planted roots in Omaha, a city he describes as “a competitive edge” for anybody who knows how to tap into it.
His wife Stephanie, a former Maverick soccer standout and UNO Hall of Famer, is from the city. When the Omaha athletic director job opened, community leaders and donors urged him to apply. He already knew the terrain, the donors, and the culture.
Four years later, he still calls it a dream job.
“To take your first AD job in a community that means so much to you,” he says, “that’s a huge competitive advantage.”
Building Something Sustainable
Success in college athletics can be loud. Coaching hires. Big wins. Viral moments. Dowell prefers quieter indicators.
Infrastructure. Staff alignment. Shared vision. Academic success.
When he interviewed for the Omaha position, he and Chancellor Joanne Li quickly aligned on a central idea. The department had potential for broad-based competitive success, not just isolated wins. If they invested strategically and recruited the right personnel, they believed championships could follow.
“We’ve learned how to win,” Dowell says. “But it’s harder to sustain winning than it is to win just once.”
Sustainability is his keyword. It shows up in facility planning, staffing models, NIL strategy, and academic integration. It also shows up in revenue. Since his arrival, Omaha Athletics has increased self-generated revenue by more than 60 percent through ticketing, development, sponsorships, licensing, and events.
That growth helped fuel a December 2025 announcement that may very well define the next era of Maverick Athletics. The University of Nebraska Board of Regents approved the next phase of the athletics campus master plan, a fully philanthropic $67.5 million investment centered on two major projects.
The first is a 75,000-square-foot training facility connected to Baxter Arena by a skywalk. Scheduled to begin construction in 2026 and open in 2028, it will include practice courts, strength and conditioning, sports science, nutrition, mental health services, academic support areas, and community event space.
The second is a 19,000-square-foot baseball and softball clubhouse overlooking Maverick Park that will centralize operations for those programs.
“Facilities matter,” he says. “But they matter because of what they allow you to do for student athletes.”
The Holistic Model
One of Dowell’s proudest initiatives is Omaha’s integrated performance model. The department now includes sports science staff who collaborate with what he calls “one of the best biomechanics departments in the country.” Half of the athletic trainers are PhD students connected to that academic unit. The program also offers in-house physical therapy, sports psychology, nutrition support, and a specialized training table program for female student athletes.
“I don’t think we start winning without all that happening,” he says.
The approach reflects a philosophy that has guided his career since his Division III playing days. Athletics should enhance education, not compete with it. The mission is still tied to preparing students for life after sport.
That perspective matters as the industry evolves. Revenue sharing, NIL collectives, conference realignment and shifting NCAA structures have forced administrators to rethink long-term planning. Dowell believes the era of decade-long strategic plans is over.
“If you’ve got a plan longer than two years right now,” he says, “good luck.”
Instead, he emphasizes adaptability. The departments that thrive will be the ones willing to pivot quickly as rules and resources change. Omaha plans to opt into revenue sharing in the coming year. Dowell spent the past year studying peer institutions before finalizing a strategy.
“We wanted the logistics and operations firm,” he says, “so we could transition with confidence.”
Leadership In A Complicated Job
Ask Dowell what the hardest part of being a modern athletic director is, and he answers without hesitation.
Balance.
Not work-life balance. Organizational balance.
“You’re juggling business model, sports, personnel, capital projects, donors, sponsors, elected officials,” he says. “And you’re doing it for student athletes.”
He does not pretend to have mastered it. Instead, he quickly credits his staff and UNO coaches.
“You have to surround yourself with people smarter than you,” he says.
Since he arrived, Omaha has not lost a sitting head coach to another institution. Stability has reinforced performance. Performance has reinforced fans’ and donors’ beliefs. That belief has translated into funding.
Dowell calls Omaha one of the most generous donor environments in the country. It is also one of the most collaborative. Omaha Athletics shares facilities with the community and hosts more than 300 events each year, fewer than half of which are Maverick sporting events.
The arrangement strengthens both sides. The city supports the university, and the university serves the city.
A Different Recruiting Pitch
When Dowell talks to prospective coaches or athletes, he starts with the UNO ecosystem.
He points to a 15,000-student urban campus in a growing metro area. He points to partnerships with businesses and medical providers. He points to facilities that rival larger programs. He points to academic integration. He points to opportunity.
“The money is part of the decision,” he says. “It’s not the only decision.”
That message resonates in a landscape where many recruits are weighing more than just scholarships. Culture, development, and exposure matter. So does pathway. Dowell believes Division I must remain unified even as financial gaps widen between programs.
He calls football the “elephant in the room” and acknowledges that the highest resource schools will continue to push boundaries. He is fine with that as long as the broader structure still allows institutions like Omaha to compete in NCAA championships.
“When the whistle blows,” he says, “everybody forgets budgets.”
The Person Behind The Title
Dowell has led record fundraising campaigns. He oversees 16 varsity programs, 350 student athletes, and hundreds of employees.
Yet one of his favorite stories from college has nothing to do with administration. It involves an organ.
Because Division III athletes do not receive scholarships, Dowell needed a job. His parents had insisted he learn piano and organ growing up. That skill turned into weekend work as a church organist.
“It actually pays pretty well,” he says, laughing.
He still plays occasionally. Beethoven is his favorite. The sound, he says, is powerful through cathedral pipes. It is also a reminder that careers can be shaped by unexpected details. A childhood lesson becomes a college job. A mentor’s advice becomes a career map. A city connection becomes a leadership opportunity.
The Road Ahead
Dowell does not claim to know what college athletics will look like in ten years. But he knows what he wants to preserve. Integration with higher education.
He also knows what he wants for Omaha. Sustainable success with continued growth. A program that is not surprised by winning but now expects it.
Each year, he says, the ceiling gets higher.
That belief drives him long before the first meeting or the first phone call. It starts in a school drop-off line somewhere in Omaha, when an all-black SUV rolls to a stop and three kids pile out, carrying backpacks, stories, and the kind of perspective that keeps a Division I athletic director grounded.
Before the titles, the facilities, and the championships, Adrian Dowell’s favorite part of the day had already happened.
