FAU football has spent the last few years trying to convince the world it belongs in a bigger conversation, and now it's handing the keys to someone whose whole career has been about writing checks bigger, not calling plays. According to Pete Thamel, the Owls are set to hire Josh McCowan, currently Mississippi State's deputy AD and Chief Revenue Officer, as their new athletic director.
Sources: FAU is set to hire Mississippi State deputy AD and Chief Revenue Officer Josh McCown as the school’s new athletic director. McCown brings and extensive fundraising background and impressed the FAU brass with a modern AD skill set. He’s also worked at Kansas State and Colorado prior to MSU.
The pitch here isn't a splashy hire with a championship pedigree, it's a résumé built entirely around revenue. McCowan's title at Mississippi State literally has "Chief Revenue Officer" in it, and per Thamel he brings an extensive fundraising background that reportedly impressed FAU brass with what's being described as a modern AD skill set. In an era where NIL budgets and conference realignment decide who gets left behind, that's exactly the type of hire mid-major programs are chasing now — someone who can build the war chest before worrying about the whiteboard.
McCowan isn't a Mississippi State lifer either. Before landing in Starkville, he cut his teeth at both Kansas State and Colorado, two programs with wildly different fundraising realities but similar lessons in how to squeeze value out of a roster and a fanbase that isn't always swimming in blue-blood money. That kind of background lines up with where FAU actually sits: a Group of 5 program still trying to figure out its ceiling, not a bluechip factory that can win on name recognition alone.
Thamel's second post repeated the same reporting almost word for word, which is usually a sign a story has been fully confirmed and isn't just a single-source rumor floating around.
Sources: FAU is set to hire Mississippi State deputy AD and Chief Revenue Officer Josh McCowan as the school’s new athletic director. McCown brings and extensive fundraising background and impressed the FAU brass with a modern AD skill set. He’s also worked at Kansas State and Colorado prior to MSU.
What happens next matters more than the hire itself. An AD with a fundraising background can pour resources into facilities, NIL collectives, and coaching buyouts, but none of that guarantees wins on Saturdays. FAU has been searching for stability and an identity since bouncing between conferences, and this hire signals the school thinks the fix starts with the budget sheet before the depth chart. Whether that translates to actual results on the field is the question that'll define McCowan's tenure long before any box score does.