Iowa State hires Auburn's Jared Benko as athletic director

Thamel broke it first, and he named who Benko is: Auburn's number 2 and the former AD at Georgia Southern.

Pete Thamel

@PeteThamel

Sources Iowa State is hiring Jared Benko as the school’s next athletic director. Benko is Auburn’s Executive Deputy Athletic Director and the former athletic director at Georgia Southern.

About a minute later Dellenger had it too, telling Yahoo Sports that Iowa State is expected to hire Benko. When 2 of the biggest college sports news-breakers have the same name within 60 seconds, the search is basically over and the paperwork is the only thing left.

Ross Dellenger

@RossDellenger

Iowa State is expected to hire Auburn deputy AD Jared Benko as its new athletic director, source tells @YahooSports.

Ames has needed this for a while. Pollard announced his retirement over the summer with a planned exit on June 30, 2027. Then in late September he moved it up to right after Homecoming, with his last day in the office being the West Virginia game on October 4. That left the Cyclones running a Power 4 athletic department with no permanent AD in the middle of football season, while the search was still going.

Benko isn't a big name, but his resume is all about money, and that's the job now. He spent about 4.5 years as Georgia Southern's AD, starting in April 2020. While he was there the school set 4 straight fundraising records worth more than $40.95 million, oversaw $100 million in capital projects and hosted its first NCAA baseball regional in 2022. Before that he did business operations and finance at Georgia, Arkansas, Auburn and Mississippi State. Auburn AD John Cohen brought him back to the Plains as executive deputy AD in October 2024.

Thamel explained why Iowa State went this way in a follow-up tweet. Benko's portfolio at Auburn is basically a list of the things that decide whether a program can compete in 2026.

Pete Thamel

@PeteThamel

Benko brings the skill set for the modern athletic director, as his duties at Auburn include business operations, NIL and revenue sharing, strategic initiatives, player management and contracts.

That's the point of the hire. Revenue sharing and player contracts have turned the AD chair into part CFO and part general manager, and Iowa State is a Big 12 school that has to get the most out of every dollar against richer programs. It picked someone who has run the money side at an SEC school instead of someone who's best known for raising money.

Next up is the official announcement and Benko's introduction, where the questions will be about NIL budgets, how far the revenue-share money goes and how he plans to keep football and basketball competitive in the new model. He's also following a guy who ran the place for more than 2 decades. That's a lot to live up to, and Iowa State is betting a numbers guy is the right fit for it.