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It took more than 20 years for Purdue to get a new athletic director. In less than 12 months we now have two. Recently, Mike Bobinski announced they would be adding a deputy athletic director position as sort of a “Second in Command” it is probably a position that would eventually allow for internal promotion if and when Bobinski leaves. Here is what he had in mind for the job per the Journal & Courier:
“As a primary set of responsibilities, they’re going to oversee our external – everything that faces outward – and pull all of that together,” Bobinski said. “Our marketing area, our communications area, our creative area, our Learfield relationship, our licensing, all of our stuff that looks out with our branding and our identity.”
He needed a right-hand man!
This is a really, really good idea, as Purdue has suffered from a lack of marketing and creativity for some time. It seems like this position would be mostly about shaping the identity of Purdue. It is a fresh, new idea and shows that the previous status quo will no longer be enough.
Today Jason Butikofer was named to the position:
Per #Purdue, Southern Utah University AD Jason Butikofer has been named #Purdue's deputy AD. Will be Mike Bobinski's second-in-command.
— GoldandBlack.com (@GoldandBlackcom) June 20, 2017
Butikofer previously served as athletic director at Southern Utah, a school in Cedar City, Utah that is in Division I in the Big Sky Conference after enjoying a brief vagabond existence after moving up to Division I. For a time they were a member of the Summit League with the likes of IPFW and IUPUI. Butikofer was the AD there for two seasons and helped oversee 17 Division I programs. In 2015 Southern Utah won the Big Sky conference in football for the first time and made the FCS playoffs for just the second time ever.
This is from his SUU bio:
His guidance in coordinating marketing and promotion activities has also increased ticket sales revenue and SUU will set an all-time high in this department in 2016-17. Football attendance has increased from 3,261 average attendees per game in 2014 to 8,255 average attendees per game in 2016 representing a 153% increase. A single game attendance record of 10,306 was set at SUU’s homecoming game vs. Portland State in 2016.
That’s impressive. We need all the help we can get in getting butts in the seats for football, so welcome aboard, Jason!