The Iowa State Cyclones tapped Jared Benko as the school’s next director of athletics on Friday.
After a long search, Benko, previously the executive deputy athletic director at Auburn, is the name to replace longtime director Jamie Pollard, who stepped down from the longest tenure of any AD in the Big 12 or the Power Four earlier this year. Benko is slated to begin his new post on Oct. 30 ahead of a Week 8 home football matchup vs. No. 18 Oklahoma State.
Benko’s previous stops include Georgia Southern (as athletic director) and Mississippi State (chief financial officer; Benko has also held multiple administrative roles around the SEC, including at Georgia and Arkansas.
“Iowa State has a strong athletics foundation and I’m excited to serve as the next director of athletics,” said Benko, issuing an introductory statement via Iowa State’s official athletics website. “Iowa State has competitive momentum, strong fan support, and outstanding facilities. For me, this is an opportunity to build on that success while bringing a problem-solving mindset to a period of significant change in college athletics.”
Benko is known for his fundraising success at Georgia Southern, where he set four different records in addition to three of the largest gifts in “athletic foundation history,” according to Iowa State’s release. He’s the newest Big 12 athletic director named since Fernando Lovo took over the role at Colorado in late 2025.
It’s been something of a whirlwind year for Iowa State, which saw its fair share of ups and downs, losing longtime head football coach Matt Campbell to Penn State, and the cancellation of the school’s women’s gymnastics program this past March, and a long-term deal to retain T.J. Otzelberger through the 2035-36 season.
Now, Benko enters the picture in hopes of carrying Pollard’s torch with his first Power Four AD gig.
