COLLEGE PARK — After losing its athletic director and men’s basketball coach within days of each other after a public airing of grievances in March, the lament of Maryland supporters has been the lack of loyalty among its high-profile coaches and officials.
From the outside, Jim Smith might be considered in that same mold. An Ohio State and Northwestern graduate with no previous ties to Maryland coming from the highest levels of professional sports to College Park might seem strange.
Smith dashed any of those reservations in his introduction to the university Thursday afternoon.
“What I’ve learned is that every coach, either they’re fooling me, or every coach has a fierce commitment to Maryland. For them, Maryland is the destination,” he said, “and so it is for me, too.”
Smith’s hire from his role as senior vice president of business strategy for Major League Baseball’s Atlanta Braves comes at a perfect time for Maryland during an imperfect time in college athletics.
“I stand up here today with a clear understanding of the enormity of the moment, not just for me, but for all of you — for the University of Maryland, for the athletic department, for the coaches and for the enterprise of college athletics,” Smith said.
“Everything seems to be changing right now: conference realignment, college football playoffs, name, image and likeness [NIL], roster limits, television rights, transfer windows. The very business of the model of college athletics, all changing.”
He is poised to shake up some aspects of how things have been run at Maryland, specifically how it relates to revenue generation and fundraising.
“We’re going to focus on revenue, because make no mistake about it, to compete with the caliber of schools, not just in the Big Ten, but across the country, we must increase our revenues,” Smith said. “So we’re going to be trying a few new things — I’m not going to tell anyone any of that today — taking new approaches, applying what I’ve learned from professional leagues here and bringing them to college athletics.”
Former AD Damon Evans, who left for the same position at Southern Methodist last month, led an intense focus on facility upgrades across the department, including a basketball practice center that is nearing completion.
Though it resulted in modern assets, the facility focus has left Maryland behind its peer institutions in NIL organization, branding and strategy — a vacuum Smith is prepared to fill.
“We’re really excited about his track record, history, the new ideas he’ll bring into our room,” said Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti. “It’s the perfect time for that type of experience, because we are in some pretty uncharted waters right now.”
Smith will begin his job in mid-July following his responsibilities with the Braves as Atlanta hosts the 2025 MLB All-Star Game.
“The Braves are a championship organization … I learned a lot from being in there, and then I learned a lot about how to make a championship organization better, and being a senior leader there, and figuring out how we can continue to improve,” he said.
Smith said his first text congratulating him on the job following his announcement last week came from Maryland’s most visible public supporter.
“I think the opportunity of what this job is should tell you he wouldn’t have left if it weren’t that,” ESPN anchor Scott Van Pelt told The Washington Times. “It’s a big job, and I think he can elevate that job. And I think the only reason Jim’s here is because of that.”
Smith also takes over a department in which he’s had no say in coaching hires, including the most recent, men’s basketball coach Buzz Williams, last month. How his relationships develop with those coaches, specifically Williams and football coach Mike Locksley, will be something to watch ahead of an expected revenue sharing settlement that will allow universities to directly pay their student athletes.
“You have to strategize from that standpoint — not who’s the best soccer coach, who’s the best whatever coach. That’s still important, obviously, but you have to create like a front office. That’s what it is,” Van Pelt said.
“The old checking of boxes, of what mattered in 1983. It’s 2025, man,” Van Pelt said. “It matters, but not nearly as much as the other.”
• George Gerbo can be reached at ggerbo@washingtontimes.com.
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