A new athletic director search is underway in Durham, New Hampshire.
Dr. Allison Rich’s contract expires in July, as was reported last month, opening a search at one of the stronger jobs in the America East and one of the more interesting FCS-adjacent athletic departments in the Northeast. Rich’s deal included a base salary of $255,000, plus a $20,000 stipend used to “cover additional costs customarily associated with the position.”
Rich was named UNH Director of Athletics on July 5, 2022. She was hired by Dr. Jim Dean, who retired in 2024.
Like many of these Search Party breakdowns, the athletic leadership domino effect is in play.
The current president, Elizabeth S. Chilton, came to New Hampshire after serving as the inaugural chancellor of the Washington State Pullman campus in 2021. In that role, she reported to system president Kirk Schulz, who held the athletic reporting line for Wazzu athletics. That does not mean Chilton was not involved in athletic conversations, but this will be her first athletic director hire as a university president.
New Hampshire is the only show in the state. The Wildcats are the flagship, the lone Division I program in the Granite State, and a recognizable brand in a region where college athletics can be crowded but not always saturated. Durham sits about 60 miles north of Boston, so UNH does compete in a broader New England sports ecosystem. Still, there is real value in being the state flagship and the only Division I program in the state
The Institution
New Hampshire has the highly coveted R1 designation and is located in Durham, a college town of roughly 15,000 residents.
But the next athletic director will walk into a campus dealing with some financial pressures.
Undergraduate enrollment has dropped by roughly 1,675 students over the last decade, from about 13,030 to 11,355. The university has also faced significant challenges in state appropriations, dating back to a $33 million cut in 2011. More recently, in 2025, UNH dealt with at least $12 million in budget cuts, including 36 positions, made up of 23 layoffs and 13 unfilled positions. Another round included 30-plus layoffs. New Hampshire is also last in the country in higher education funding.
There have been legislative efforts to restore some funding, but those have not been overly successful.
According to people familiar with the institution, athletics was “absolutely impacted” by the broader university cuts, though the exact degree is unclear.
The next athletic director will almost certainly need a strong external revenue profile, especially around fundraising, ticketing, sponsorships, and facility development. That does not mean those areas were ignored under Rich. According to her bio, Rich helped generate nearly $23.5 million in her first three years in support of athletics capital projects, endowed scholarships, and program needs, tripling the total raised over the previous three-year period.
Still, the next era of UNH athletics will likely require even more of that work.
Finance Snapshot
The Wildcats are full members of the America East, while football competes in the Coastal Athletic Association. Hockey competes in Hockey East, with other sports scattered across additional affiliations.
For the clearest comparison, we will mostly focus on the America East. Bryant is private, so its financial numbers are not included here.
According to New Hampshire’s 2025 FRS reporting, courtesy of Extra Points Library, the Wildcats’ athletics budget sits at $31,356,794. That places UNH in the top three of the America East and roughly $3 million above the league average.
But the trend line is more complicated.
Between FY 2023 and FY 2025, revenues reportedly dropped from about $34 million to $28 million. That includes roughly $4 million less in direct institutional support, tied to UNH reducing support for certain auxiliary activities from 2023 to 2024.
Using that same FY 2023 window, the athletic budget was $37.3 million.
So this is not a department without resources. It is not a bottom-of-the-league job. It is not a rebuild from scratch. But it is also not a department operating with an unlimited margin for error.
One encouraging piece: New Hampshire leads the America East in ticket sales revenue at just under $2.2 million.
The next athletic director will inherit a program with strong market positioning, real donor history, and legitimate ticketing strength, but also an institution facing enrollment declines, state funding pressure, and campuswide budget tightening.
In a league where many departments are trying to grow external revenue from a modest base, UNH already has proof of concept. The challenge now is turning that advantage into more stability, more investment, and more competitive momentum.
Competitive Snapshot
Competitively, the picture is mixed.
Football remains one of the department’s most visible assets. The Wildcats have gone 8-5 overall and 6-2 in league play in each of the last two seasons, making the FCS Playoffs both years before exiting in the first round.
This is a football program with tradition, infrastructure, and enough relevance to expect more than early exits.
Hockey is another major piece of the job.
Both the men’s and women’s ice hockey programs generate interest and revenue for the university, but both have had two straight losing seasons. That matters at a place where hockey is not just another sport in the directory. It is one of the department’s core pieces.
The pattern continues in basketball, where both the men’s and women’s programs have also had two straight losing seasons.
That gives the next athletic director a clear competitive to-do list: keep football moving forward, reenergize hockey, and find more traction in basketball programs.
Key Contract Dates
The next athletic director will also inherit several important coaching contracts.
Hilary Witt
Women’s Ice Hockey
Runs through 2026-27 season
$133,650
Mike Souza
Men’s Ice Hockey
Runs through 2026-27 season
$240,000
Sean Goldrich
Football
Hired December 2025; Full contract not yet released, but likely runs through 2030 season
Approx. $275,000
Megan Shoniker
Women’s Basketball
April 30, 2029
$145,500
Nate Davis
Men’s Basketball
April 30, 2028
$250,000
Fundraising
The university’s last major fundraising campaign launched in October 2016 to celebrate UNH’s 150th anniversary. By 2018, it had raised more than $308 million.
In the 2025 State of the University address, President Chilton briefly mentioned that a new campaign plan was being developed, but no announcement has been made yet.
As noted above, Athletics has seen an increase in donor contributions and commitments, totaling $8.75 million in FY25. Roughly $2 million of that was expected to go toward facility enhancements.
There are also recent examples of major investments in athletic facilities.
In 2023, UNH Hockey received a $4 million gift as part of a hockey renovation project. That project also included $6 million in state funding to improve locker rooms, sports areas, video rooms, and study rooms.
Football has already seen major facility investment as well. UNH completed $25 million in renovations to Wildcat Stadium, formerly Cowell Stadium, which originally opened in 1936. The renovated facility reopened and was rededicated in 2016, adding new tiered seating, a new press box, a scoreboard, and improvements that touched almost every part of the stadium.
The next athletic director does not have to invent donor interest from scratch. The department has recent fundraising success, facility projects to point to, and regional name recognition.
The challenge is whether the next AD can turn those pieces into a more aggressive, more consistent revenue operation.
What’s Next?
All in, this is a solid, top-of-the-America East job with real upside.
New Hampshire has the flagship label. It has R1 status. It has football and hockey. It has a real ticketing base. It has a donor base that has shown it will support athletics. It also has recent facility wins, a recognizable brand, and a clear place in the state’s sports ecosystem.
But it also comes with challenges.
Enrollment is down. State support has been volatile. Campus budget cuts have been real. Athletics has not been immune. Several key sports need more competitive momentum. The next hire will need to be comfortable operating in a small margin for error financially.
That profile likely points to candidates with meaningful fundraising and revenue-generation experience. It also points toward someone who can work closely with a president making their first athletic director hire, while helping athletics fit into a broader university story that may soon include a new comprehensive campaign.
The job is absolutely attractive. The candidate pool should be strong.
But the assignment is clear: protect what New Hampshire already has, grow what it can become, and find more wins, both competitively and financially, in a challenging higher education environment.
