Ames, Iowa – Jamie Pollard, the longest-tenured director of athletics in Iowa State University history, has received a five-year contract extension through June 30, 2030, ISU President Dr. Wendy Wintersteen announced today.
“During Jamie’s 20 years, the university has celebrated all-time program bests academically and athletically, and significant growth in attendance,” Wintersteen said. “He has built a culture of success at Iowa State, while navigating the many changes in collegiate athletics. I also appreciate Jamie’s efforts to create a new vision for the Iowa State Center and athletic facilities through the CyTown entertainment district concept.”
Pollard, the nation’s third-longest serving active Power Four Director of Athletics, has led the Cyclones’ 18-sport intercollegiate athletics program to unprecedented academic and athletic success during his two-decade run in Ames, reimagining nearly every phase of the ISU program along the way.
“I am humbled to have had the opportunity to lead our athletics program for the past 20 years,” Pollard said. “The administration’s support, led by President Wintersteen and General Counsel Mike Norton, has been instrumental in our success. We have an amazing culture in our athletics program, led by our talented and dedicated coaches and staff. Although our industry is undergoing transformational change, I am confident our department will successfully embrace these challenges with the same energy and urgency that has proven to be successful in the past.”
Under Pollard’s leadership, Cyclone student-athletes continue to thrive in the classroom, having matched or established a school-record Graduation Success Rate score for 10-consecutive years, improving from 77 percent in 2014 to its 95 percent mark each of the past three years, including the most-recent NCAA data released last fall.
The performance of Iowa State’s teams under his direction continues to impress, too. After finishing 35th in the 2023-24 Learfield Directors’ Cup standings, its second-highest placement ever (34th) and third Top 45 finish in the last four seasons, the Cyclones ranked 27th in the final fall rankings of the 2024-25 academic year. ISU joins Tennessee as the only Division I schools whose football teams produced a double-digit win total and are currently ranked among the Top 10 in men’s basketball.
The 2024 Cyclone football team enjoyed its first 11-win season in program history, reached the Dr Pepper Big 12 Championship game for the second time in five years and beat 15th-ranked Miami, 42-41, to win the Pop Tarts Bowl. The Cyclone men’s basketball team has spent the entire 2024-25 campaign ranked among the nation’s Top 10 and is poised to play in the NCAA Tournament for the fourth-straight season, while the men’s cross country team finished second at the 2024 NCAA Championships, its second runner-up finish in the last four years.
Since his arrival in Ames, Pollard has energized the Cyclone fan base, registered all-time program bests academically, athletically and in fundraising while shattering attendance marks in the department’s five major sports. Landmark achievements of Pollard’s tenure to-date include:
- After breaking ground in March 2023 on CyTown, Iowa State’s innovative 40-acre mixed-use entertainment district being built between Jack Trice Stadium and the Iowa State Center, he announced in February 2024 the selection of Midwest-based Goldenrod Companies to lead the project’s design, development, financing and construction.
- Modeled after the Green Bay Packers’ Titletown and Kansas City’s Power and Light District, CyTown will be the first-ever entertainment district built in the heart of a college campus.
- Investment of more than $340M in new construction and facility renovations impacting nearly every Cyclone sport; the two most-recent being the $90M, 110,000-square foot Stark Performance Center which opened in August 2021 to serve every Iowa State student-athlete, and the Gateway Pedestrian Bridge and RV Village which debuted in 2022 to further enhance the game day experience for Cyclone fans at Jack Trice Stadium.
- Secured the largest donation ever received by ISU Athletics – a $25 million gift from the Reiman family – that was the lead donation for Jack Trice Stadium’s south end zone enclosure which increased capacity to 61,500— the Big 12 Conference’s second-largest stadium.
- Watched Cyclone Club annual fund donations increase in 15 of the last 19 years, including record fundraising totals in each of the last four years.
- Since the 2011-12 academic year, ISU is the nation’s only school to average at least 50,000 fans at home football games (12-straight seasons), 12,000 fans at home men’s basketball games (14-straight years), and 9,000 fans at home women’s basketball games (16-straight seasons), excluding the COVID-impacted 2020-21 academic year.
- Iowa State has earned 23 of its 26 all-time academic NCAA Public Recognition Awards in nine different sports under his direction.
- The Cyclones have won 23 of their 31 all-time Big 12 team titles on his watch and produced at least one league championship squad in 11 of the last 13 years.
National observers have taken notice of the athletics revival in Ames, as Pollard was honored as the 2023 and 2019 FBS Athletics Director of the Year by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA), one of only 20 individuals to earn multiple FBS AD honors in the award’s 26-year history. The two-time (2023 and 2019) Sports Business Journal AD of the Year finalist was also the first collegiate administrator selected for Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 award in 2003.
Amid a six-year term on the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee’s College Athletics Council, Pollard completed his final year on the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee in 2023-24. The 2021-22 NACDA President has also served as President of both the Division I-A Athletics Director’s Association and the Collegiate Athletics Business Manager’s Association (CABMA) as well as chair of the Big 12 Athletics Directors Committee. Pollard is the only individual to have ever served as President of NACDA, the I-A Athletics Director’s Association and CABMA.
The terms of Pollard’s new contract will be announced at a future date.
