The University of Toledo is now on the hunt for its next athletic director after Bryan Blair went east to become the athletic director at Syracuse University. Let’s dive into the vacancy.
Blair was hired in February of 2022 as the 14th athletic director in program history. He came to Toledo after serving as Deputy AD at Washington State University, replacing the retiring Mike O’Brien. He was hired by Gregory Postel, who left roughly two years later to become Senior Vice President for Health Affairs and Dean of the College of Medicine at the University of Cincinnati.
Current president Dr. James Holloway began his tenure on July 15, 2025. If you’ve read any of these search pieces before, you know the pattern: new president, new direction, and often a new athletic director within 12 months. Holloway came from the University of New Mexico and has ties to Michigan, Illinois, Virginia, and Cambridge. (And yes, a nuclear engineer leading the Rockets is almost too perfect.)
Blair was hired as an innovator and a fundraiser. He checked both boxes.
He launched the “Rise Together” strategic plan almost immediately, aligning campus, athletics, and the community. The plan included a $75 million facility master plan that is currently in the works with upgrades across multiple sports. Fundraising increased 282 percent since FY22, including the second-largest gift in school history. He also launched “Glass City Live,” the program’s first football stadium concert in more than 30 years, drawing 18,000 fans and creating a new revenue stream.
What the Next AD Inherits
It’s a rocket ship with fuel still in the tank.
Toledo won the Cartwright Award for the top MAC school for three years in a row (2022, 2023, and 2024) and has claimed 13 MAC championships over the last three years. That’s more than the previous decade combined.
Financial Snapshot (via Extra Points)
Toledo’s financial profile is where this job really starts to separate itself.
On the surface, they sit fourth in the MAC in total expenses at $39.5 million, just a shade above the league average of $38.8 million. That alone doesn’t jump off the page. They’re not lapping the field like the top of the league at $50.7 million, but they’re clearly operating in the upper tier of the league.
Toledo ranks 12th in the MAC in direct institutional support at just $2.8 million. The league average sits at $14.3 million, with Central Michigan University leading the way at $27.4 million. Toledo isn’t just below average in this category; it’s last.
And yet, when you look at the revenue side, they more than make up for it.
They rank second in contributions at $3.64 million, well above the MAC mean of $2.16 million and just behind Western Michigan University. They lead the conference outright in ticket sales at $1.91 million, significantly ahead of the league average of $1.15 million. They also sit second in coaching salaries at $9.14 million, trailing only Buffalo and comfortably above the MAC mean of $7.87 million.
Put together, it paints a very clear picture.
Toledo is generating its way to be competitive with the league rather than relying on institutional support to get there. Ticket sales lead the conference. Donor support is among the best in the MAC. Spending is competitive with the top programs.
They are also right in the middle of the league in student fees, ranking sixth, which reinforces the same point.
There’s clearly something working, but, could it be better? Absolutely.
What Could the Next Contract Look Like?
Blair’s base salary was at $365,000, right in line with the MAC average, with incentives capped at 30 percent of that figure. The bonus structure was fairly standard on the surface, tied to championships and academics, but it also added layers tied to revenue generation. There were incentives in the $5,000 to $15,000 range for finishing in the top three of the league in areas like ticket sales, sponsorship, and attendance, along with a smaller $5,000 on-budget bonus.
Blair’s buyout was a flat $50,000 throughout the duration of the deal.
Key Decisions
Football
This is about as stable as it gets in the MAC.
Toledo has posted a .500 record or better every season since 2009, a run that includes 13 bowl appearances in the last 16 years … all with two head coaches, Matt Campbell (Penn State) and Jason Candle (UCONN). It’s one of the more consistent programs in the league, and historically, it’s been a place where coaches win and eventually move on to bigger opportunities. That track record hasn’t changed.
After Jason Candle left this offseason, Toledo turned to Mike Jacobs, hiring him away from Mercer. Across multiple levels, Jacobs brings a 94–23 record, and the expectation is that he can sustain, if not build on, what’s already in place.
He’s under contract through 2030 at $1 million annually, split evenly between base salary and marketing compensation. The structure of his deal is also telling. His buyout is set at 100 percent of the remaining base salary at the time of termination.
Men’s Basketball
Tod Kowalczyk has been the model of consistency since arriving in 2010-11. Toledo has won seven regular-season titles during his tenure, including six in a seven-year stretch from 2018 through 2024, and he’s compiled a 315–211 record, good for a .599 winning percentage. Year over year, the Rockets are in the mix. They win. They contend. They check a lot of the boxes you want in a mid-major program.
But the one box that hasn’t been checked is the biggest one.
No NCAA Tournament appearances. Not once. It’s now a 46-year drought for the program, and at some point, that becomes part of the evaluation, no matter how strong the regular-season success has been. It’s not an urgent decision for a new AD, but it’s one that will sit in the background.
Kowalczyk’s contract runs through 2030, with a $361,000 base salary and $225,000 in marketing compensation. There are multiple incentives built in, including a unique one where he earns 10 percent of his base salary if the suites sell out for the season. His buyout is a flat $325,000 through the life of the deal, giving the program flexibility if that conversation ever does shift.
Women’s Basketball
On the other side, women’s basketball is trending in a strong direction.
Ginny Boggess was hired in 2024 and quickly earned an extension through 2030 after a 24–9 first season. The program has been consistently competitive, finishing in the top four of the MAC in four of the last five years.
Her contract includes a $250,000 base salary and $200,000 in marketing compensation.
(Blair’s hiring record)
The Job Itself
Toledo is a Space Grant university with strong ties to health and research. It is the sixth-largest university in Ohio.
Like many institutions, enrollment has declined. From nearly 21,000 students in 2016 to 13,165 in spring 2026.
In his 2024 State of the University address, Holloway noted that a capital campaign is on the horizon. Nothing formal has materialized yet, but when it does, I am sure athletics will be included.
So Who is Next?
This is the type of opening that will draw sitting FCS athletic directors looking to make the jump, Group of Five deputies ready for their first chair, and potentially a few Power conference administrators who have been waiting for the right situation. Toledo offers something a lot of those candidates want: stability, upward momentum, and a clear lane to make an impact without having to rebuild from the ground up.
We’ve seen this playbook recently. Marshall University dipped into Austin Peay to hire Gerald Harrison. Ohio University went to South Dakota State for Slade Larscheid. Toledo sits in that same tier of job, but arguably with a little more momentum and a stronger revenue foundation than most of its peers.
This is a good job, and it comes with real traction. Revenue is trending up. Donor support is strong. Ticket sales lead the league. There is still room to grow, both in how the brand is positioned and how the department continues to scale its revenue model.
And if things break the right way over time, there is at least a conversation to be had about what Toledo could become in the broader college football landscape. Not speculation, but it has been discussed in similar contexts across the region, especially with movements like Northern Illinois University to the Mountain West.
All of that frames the job for what it is.
This is not a rebuild. It’s not even a reset. It’s a continuation, but one that comes with pressure.
The next athletic director inherits a department that has won at a high level, built a real revenue engine, and positioned itself well within the MAC. Those boxes are already checked.
Now the question becomes simple.
What’s the next step forward?
