The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics has named Auburn’s Jay Jacobs, the longest-tenured AD in the SEC West, as one of its Athletic Director of the Year Award winners. Jacobs, who has been working on the Plains since the 1980s, and as the athletic director since 2004, was nominated by Auburn University President Jay Gogue, and was the only SEC AD to be honored this year.
There is no denying the progress that has been made in Jacobs’ time here at Auburn. Tiger Athletics have seen great success in multiple sports. The football team won a National Championship in 2010 and was runner-up in 2013. The softball team is a consistent powerhouse that is coming off a second place finish in the Women’s College World Series. The equestrian team has won four straight national championships, and the women’s soccer team reached its first-ever Elite Eight.
In all honesty, if you are grading his performance so far, no red flags jump out. Jacobs has done everything you want to see on paper. He has gone out and made big-name hires in his time like Gus Malzahn, Bruce Pearl, and even Butch Thompson to energize their respective programs. Auburn athletics have seen substantial growth in terms of departmental income under Jacobs, bringing in $9 million in 2015 and $15.2 million in 2016. The athletic department has not had a major NCAA violation during Jacobs’ tenure, which is more than some other SEC schools can say for themselves. And, student-athletes’ are excelling in the classroom, not just in competition, while GPAs are as high as they have ever been. Jacobs checks off all of the boxes.
However, major questions still loom over the basketball, baseball, and football programs, which have, of late, not been at their best to say the least. Since Malzahn’s first year in 2013, the football team has quickly become a disappointment year in and year out. Auburn baseball has not been nationally relevant in what seems like an eternity. And, yes, the basketball program is moving in the right direction, but Bruce Pearl has been here three years now, and the Tigers have yet to finish at or above .500 in conference play. Softball, equestrian, and soccer dominance are all great, but the bottom line is this; if you are an athletic director in a Power 5 conference like the SEC, then you will be most heavily judged on the performance of the football, basketball, and baseball programs, especially in the state of Alabama. Based on that reality, have the athletics really been up to par? As of now, Auburn faithful aren’t so sure.
Historically, the SEC is arguably one of the best conferences in college athletics with millions of unforgiving fans, and Tiger fans are no exception. They expect greatness, and lately it just has not been there. Butch Thompson is only in his second year so it’s not his fault, but overall the baseball team has been underwhelming, failing to reach an NCAA regional for the past 7 years. Gus Malzahn, as I alluded to earlier, won the SEC championship and fell short in the national championship in his first year, but since then has been 11-13 in SEC play. Pearl has made great strides and brought much needed excitement to a program that hasn’t been to the NCAA tournament since 2003, but has gone 15-38 in the league, and the Tigers have finished in the bottom four in all three of his years at the helm. The question everyone is asking is, when will these coaches get over the hump?
Jay Jacobs has done a fine job, but the final judgement is yet to come. One thing is for sure, the perception of the Auburn AD will depend on what Malzahn, Pearl, and Thompson can accomplish in the years to come.
The award is nice, but there is work that still needs to be done.
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